Jazz Articles about Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd: A New Perspective

by Jim Santella
May 1, 1997

With his flair for innovation, Donald Byrd, in late 1963, put together a septet that was recorded with the Coleridge Perkinson Choir providing a capella Gospel support. Duke Pearson provided arrangements which carefully weave eight wordless voices in and out of the septet's blues-derived compositions. Byrd's father was a Methodist minister, so the trumpeter worked with Pearson at, as Byrd states in the liner notes, “approaching this tradition with respect and great pleasure." The recording, which was reissued on CD ...