Don Byron New Gospel Quintet – Love, Peace and Soul

Don Byron New Gospel Quintet

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

Jazz and gospel music are only a razor-thin line away from one another musically.

At least they used to be. They were during the era of Thomas A. Dorsey and Roberta Martin. That is the era, and Dorsey and Martin are two of the gospel songwriters, that the Don Byron New Gospel Quintet explores on Love, Peace, and Soul, released last month.

Clarinetist and saxophonist Don Byron founded the New Gospel Quintet in part from his interest in the roots of African American sacred music and particularly the contributions of Dorsey, long considered the Father of Gospel Music. On his website, Byron adds that the album also “coincides with a growth in my own faith and is for me a religious expression.”

The opening track, Dorsey’s contagious “Highway to Heaven,” has a Dixieland vibe appropriate for marching in the second line or down the church aisle. For the most part, however, the quintet plays the meaty club jazz that conjures images of dark, smoke-filled rooms and all-night jam sessions.

But open the windows, let the smoke out and let the light shine in because it’s good news that Byron and the quintet are celebrating. As if there were any question, “Consideration” has a quintessentially gospel introduction, an amalgam of Dorsey, Martin and James Cleveland, the latter learning his craft from the former two. The blue notes and dalliances with boogie-woogie piano on “It’s My Desire” would earn a “that’s good stuff!” from Dorsey, a veteran of the club and rent party circuit before he turned full-tilt to gospel songwriting and directing.

The album’s longest track, clocking in at more than ten minutes, is Dorsey’s classic “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” There is no gospel song more beloved, and female vocalist DK Dyson joins with the quintet in building intensity until the weight lifts and the soul is freed.

Byron saves the best for last. The instrumental “When I’ve Done My Best” (aka Dorsey’s “When I’ve Done the Best I Can”) fits the introspective mood the lyrics suggest. It is a recounting of one’s deeds in hopes that they earn the supplicant a smooth entrance into heaven. Byron’s clarinet toys with the melody and holds notes for emphasis like a flat-footed gospel singer.

Love, Peace, and Soul has plenty to satisfy jazz and gospel enthusiasts, and especially those who like both. And that’s good stuff!

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “When I’ve Done My Best,” “It’s My Desire.”