
Song: Rock Creek Park
Artist: The Blackbyrds
Year: 1975
Album: City Life
Genre: Rhythm & Blues
Style: Soul
Pictured: 7″ Single
Click Here to Play the Song
The Blackbyrds’ music is often described as jazz, but I don’t hear anything jazzy in their songs. It’s pretty clear to me that it was their association with Donald Byrd that led people to lump this otherwise typical rhythm and blues act into the jazz category. Now, Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II, which is a great name, by the way, was a jazz master. He recorded some of the greatest jazz records of all time before moving away from jazz and into “jazz fusion,” a hybrid of jazz and rock or soul music. Some might say jazz fusion is the name you give music made by someone capable of playing jazz who decides he’d like to sell more records, but I won’t go there. Say what you will about Donald Byrd’s shift from jazz to fusion, but when it comes to the Blackbyrds, I don’t think jazz fusion, I think R&B.
I feel like maybe I should start over, because it sounds like I’m dissing the Blackbyrds, and that is not the case at all. I really enjoy a lot of their work, and I enjoy Donald Byrd’s ’70s fusion efforts immensely. Places and Spaces is a remarkable album, and one I encourage everyone reading this to check out immediately. No, it isn’t Donald Byrd or the Blackbyrds that I take issue with. It’s when their songs are labelled jazz that I get a bit confused, because they aren’t jazz records at all. The Blackbyrds were students at Howard University, where Donald Byrd taught music, and Byrd co-produced some of their music, but the connection ends there.
What the Blackbyrds are, on the other hand, is super hella dope funky, if that is okay to write in this otherwise scholarly-sounding article. They made some of the greatest funky soul music of their era, and had a lasting influence not only on R&B, but on hip hop as well. Many of their songs found a second life as samples in rap songs of the ’80s and ’90s, including “Rock Creek Park.” Almost everyone likes the Blackbyrds. Except my college friend Rusty. I made him a mixtape once, and he told me liked everything except the song “Rock Creek Park.” Well, what does Rusty know? This is a great song! In fact, there have only ever been 349 songs that are better than it!
What’s that? Why is “Rock Creek Park” the 350th best song ever? Well, what I most like about this song is that it sounds exactly like its name. When I hear this song, even if it is the dead of winter, as it is today, I’m transported to a warm, sunny park, where people are picnicking, kids are playing sports, music is playing, romance is in the air, and life is generally good. I’ve never been to Rock Creek Park, which is in Washington, D.C., by the way, but I used to spend as much time as I could spare in Oakland’s Mosswood Park, San Francisco’s Dolores Park, and Los Angeles’ Echo Park. While I am not much of an outdoorsy person, and hiking/camping/fishing and so forth aren’t my cup of tea, an afternoon or evening in a large urban park is right up my alley.
Do you get the same feeling when you hear today’s song?