Jazz great Donald Byrd died last week at the age of 80. The the video above is his amazing jazz hymn, “Cristo Redentor,” which appeared on the classic 1963 album A New Perspective. About the project, Byrd said: “I mean this album seriously. Because of my own background, I’ve always wanted to write an entire album of spiritual-like pieces. The most accurate way I can describe what we were all trying to do is that this is a modern hymnal. In an earlier period, the New Orleans jazzmen would often play religious music for exactly what it was – but with their own jazz textures and techniques added. Now, as modern jazzmen, we’re also approaching this tradition with respect and great pleasure.” [Wikipedia: A New Perspective]
Here is the lineup on the album:
Donald Byrd – trumpet
Hank Mobley – tenor saxophone
Herbie Hancock – piano
Kenny Burrell – guitar
Donald Best – vibraphone, vocals
Butch Warren – bass
Lex Humphries – drums
Duke Pearson – arranger
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson – choir direction
R.I.P Donald Byrd, you will be missed, and remembered.
More: Read the New York Times obituary for Donald Byrd.