Wow -- that is super-strange, Zards, as I was
listening to that very recording of Naima at about 8:30pm last night -- just before I thought of Booker Little, recalled this quintet album, & decided to send it your way!
Donald Byrd wound up a professor at U of Delaware (I live in Lewes, DE). My buddy James Jones (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Jones_(psychologist)) was going to introduce me to him, but DB passed away before he got the chance.
Fortunately -- unlike Clifford & Booker Little -- Donald Byrd did not die young: he lived to be 80 -- perhaps b/c he was married to this beautiful woman? --
https://www.flickr.com/photos/147039490@N04/31030019514Byrd was a wonderful player & quite an interesting individual. He moved away from jazz to R&B & fusion in the '70s -- why? -- when he lived in DC & taught at Howard (where, btw, he also got a JS, a law degree, for some unknown reason!).
Here he is practicing on the NY Subway
--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/147039490@N04/31753992831That version of Naima, btw, was recorded only about 2 weeks before Eric Dolphy died in Germany (of an undiagnosed diabetic attack).
Edit -- a precious memory: standing in the freezing air outside a downtown Chicago club at maybe 14-15 years old (they wouldn't let me in!) listening to Dolphy & Little for @ an hour. I have no idea how/why they happened to be playing in Chicago....