Don Byron has signed with Savoy Jazz and is gearing up for the release of Love, Peace and Soul, the 12-track debut album by his New Gospel Quintet. With jazz as his springboard, the virtuosic clarinetist and saxophonist has turned his ear to gospel-music icons Thomas A. Dorsey and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Playing alongside Byron are DK Dyson (vocals), Xavier Davis (piano, backing vocals), Brad Jones (bass, backing vocals), Pheeroan Aklaff (drums) and guests Brandon Ross and Vernon Reid (guitars), Dean Bowman (vocals), Ralph Alessi (trumpet) and JD Parran (baritone saxophone). Recorded at Harlem’s Stadium Red Studio, the album was produced by Hans Wendl and engineered by Tom Lazarus, a team Byron has relied on for many of his recordings.

Byron’s idea to mine the historical riches of American gospel music came to fruition while teaching a course at SUNY, Albany. Once known as “the father of Black Gospel music” Thomas A. Dorsey was a pioneer in combining traditional Christian hymns with the rhythmic disciplines of jazz and blues—an almost rebellious perspective shared also by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, another key musical reference for Byron. Both stretched the boundaries of traditional gospel structures and performance and in doing so created a template for a unique form of spiritual expression grounded in African-American culture.

Says Byron: “Dorsey’s vision of blending modern songwriting, old time religious practices and elements of low-down blues prevailed despite early resistance. It ultimately became a uniting element of African-American culture, even more so than Black dance music, which is regional in its appeal. Black religious music is a very personal thing to me, as much if not more than any other style I have researched and performed in the past. As much as I was fascinated by other legends I have explored, like Duke Ellington and Stravinsky, I feel a deep spiritual connection to Gospel that transcends just about everything else.”

Love, Peace and Soul will be released on February 21.

Photo credit: David Weiland