Wherever Donald Byrd is going, this particular listener is not stepping into tomorrow with him. This LP is undoubtedly the worst Byrd effort I’ve yet encountered; a self-conscious attempt to be hip, to be moving with the times. A Motown-type choir bleats the most inane, repetitive lyrics for most of the time, even when soloists Byrd and Bartz are trying to put something together. There’s a heavy rock beat going all the way and a backdrop of electronic waffle permeating every groove. It is hard to equate any of this music with what Byrd has recorded previously. Whatever it may be, it has very little to do with the general area of music covered by this magazine. Appropriately it was all set down at a studio called The Sound Factory. The contents of the record certainly have a mass-produced ring to them. Perhaps that is where Donald Byrd, a talented player in the 1950s and 1960s, has deliberately steered himself. Good luck to him, but you have been warned.
Discography
Stepping Into Tomorrow; Design A Nation; We’re Together; Think Twice (20 min) – Makin’ It; Rock And Roll Again; You Are The World; I Love The Girl (18¼ min)
Donald Byrd (tpt/flg-h/vcl); Gary Bartz (alt/clt); Jerry Peters (pno/org); Larry Mizell (ARP synthesizers/Fender Rhodes); Chuck Rainey (Fender-bs); David T. Walker, John Rowin Rhonghea Southern (gtr); Fonce Mizell (clavinet/tpt); Harvey Mason (dm/balah dm/mouth-harp); Stephanie Spruill, Roger Sainte (perc); Mayuto Correa (cngs); James Carter (whistler); Fonce Mizell, Fred Perrin, Larry Mizell, Margie Evans, Stephanie Spruill, Kay Haith, Lorraine Kennar (vcl): Larry Mizell (arr/cond). Hollywood. Nov/Dec, 1974.
(Blue Note BNLA 368 G £2.75)
