Donald Byrd -- "Mustang " -- A First Listen

My dad bought me a copy of "Mustang!" for christmas this year. Having never heard any of his performances I was moderately excited.

What happened next was a mind-blowing experience so unique that I'm still picking up the pieces of my head up off the floor.

The album cover is just simply cool. It's sexy, but it's light and its something you want to keep out just to quietly let people know, "I know whats up, and I know how to get down."

The music just soars, the performances are captivating, and they're real. With such a limited collection of jazz relegated to the standards of coltrane, monk, dolphy and the extreme stylings of sun ra, I cant say I'm in anyway deeply familiar with 'jazz', but this screams 'real jazz' to my ears. The title track made my foot tap tap without noticing, and "i got it bad and that aint good" had such emotion and charisma that the song itself became another person in my room.

Hearing an album for the first time, at the right time is the experience I've always loved, but so rarely experienced. Its independent of any 'system' or 'tweak' and it cant be bought or traded for, and it can happen at any moment, and maybe never happen again. It as likely to happen in your car on a long drive as it is in your living room or favorite club. Its something that is as hard to forget as it to understand -- and the mystery is what makes it so lovely.

I can say that at 26 years old, I'll be buying several copies of this gem for sure.