A City Called Heaven

AMG Review of A City Called Heaven

Richard S. Ginell
All Music Guide

Byrd's third and last album for Orrin Keepnews' Landmark label -- Part Three of his mainstream comeback -- is another mostly straightahead affair with a sextet, sounding a few high-minded themes and taking a few unusual twists. Twice, Art Blakey is memorialized with drummer Carl Allen's sturdy application of the Blakey shuffle ("King Arthur," "Byrd Song"), but his drumming also salutes the M-Base brigade on the concluding "Not Necessarily the Blues." "A City Called Heaven," the spiritual-turned-title track with an nearly operatic vocal by mezzo-soprano Lorice Stevens, gets a moving extended modal treatment where Byrd has some rapid flurries that usually, but not always, hit their mark. With an enterprising left turn, Byrd turns the final aria from Henry Purcell's 17th century opera Dido and Aeneas into "Remember Me" -- again with Stevens singing -- and it makes a soulful dirge with a jazz sextet. Joe Henderson, still a few months away from becoming a jazz celebrity, returns in typically enigmatic, stimulating form on tenor sax; Bobby Hutcherson thoughtfully chips in on vibes; Donald Brown handles the piano well. Not a bad record, though not as unforgettable as his stuff from over two decades before.