Donald Byrd - 1975 - Places and Spaces

Donald Byrd

1975

Places and Spaces

01. Change (Makes You Want To Hustle) 5:07
02. Wind Parade 4:32
03. (Fallin' Like) Dominoes 4:32
04. Places And Spaces 6:16
05. You And Music 5:18
06. Night Whistler 3:40
07. Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) 4:36

Donald Byrd - trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals
Raymond Brown - trumpet
Fonce Mizell - clavinet, trumpet
Tyree Glenn, Jr. - tenor sax
George Bohannon - trombone
Larry Mizell - piano
Skip Scarborough - electric piano
John Rowin - guitar
Chuck Rainey - electric bass
Harvey Mason - drums
Mayuto Correa - percussion
Kay Haith, Larry Mizell & Fonce Mizell - backing vocals

Recorded at the Sound Factory - August/September 1975.

Reuniting with Larry Mizell, the man behind his last three LPs, Donald Byrd continues to explore contemporary soul, funk, and R&B with Places and Spaces. In fact, the record sounds more urban than its predecessor, which often played like a Hollywood version of the inner city. Keeping the Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, and Sly Stone influences of Street Lady, Places and Spaces adds elements of Marvin Gaye, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Stevie Wonder, which immediately makes the album funkier and more soulful. Boasting sweeping string arrangements, sultry rhythm guitars, rubbery bass, murmuring flügelhorns, and punchy horn charts, the music falls halfway between the cinematic neo-funk of Street Lady and the proto-disco soul of Earth, Wind & Fire. Also, the title Places and Spaces does mean something -- there are more open spaces within the music, which automatically makes it funkier. Of course, it also means that there isn't much of interest on Places and Spaces for jazz purists, but the album would appeal to most fans of Philly soul, lite funk, and proto-disco.

What must have Blue Note thought when this came sweeping in from the floors of the disco? Evidently, they gave it enough respect to see it through its official release. This is unlike any other Blue Note album preceding it, even Donald Byrd's own Blackbyrd. It's 1975, and the trumpeter calls out in the middle of the first track: "Change! Makes you wanna hustle," and then there's those oh-so-funky-and-silky disco strings. The 1970s produced some of the funkiest instrumental lines ever--is it any wonder that they've been the fount of some of the mightiest rap samples over the years?

Really, put this on, follow it up with Marvin Gaye's I Want You, and you've got about the most perfectly mellow yet funky disco night you could ever want.