Cheltenham Jazz Festival: The Don Byron New Gospel Quintet - The Everyman theatre, Cheltenham

Monday 4th May 2009

This is a Crackerjack review of Don Byron’s New Gospel Quintet. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 8 / 10.

What did new gospel mean? Clarinet and sax-player Don Byron can be a little eccentric, and a cutting edge jazzman might view early thirties music as rather simplistic.

The tunes were by Thomas A Dorsey, who himself got into a mess of trouble when he infused gospel music with passionate roaring blues. But no, an occasional ironic touch apart, Byron was deadly serious about jazz’s roots. And all was joy.

DK Dyson was a glorious singer, who could rasp, confess and soar pure voiced into the stratosphere. Byron made his post-bop style fit and enhance, and sometimes played sheer melody.

Drummer Pheeroan Aklaff laid laidback backbeats to perfection and bassist Brad Jones and pianist Frank Williams were wonderfully down-home with an edge.

Take my hand, precious Lord, written when Dorsey lost his wife in childbirth, left you hugely moved. Old time God made you want to rock in the aisle. Some people did.

Derek Briggs

This is a Crackerjack review of Don Byron’s New Gospel Quintet. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.