His landmark 1963 album, A New Perspective, was one of the first to team a jazz band with a gospel choir.For fans of the jazz-funk fusion movement of the 1970s, he was the leader of the Blackbyrds, whose dance-friendly music was later prominently sampled by such rappers as Public Enemy, Grandmaster Flash, Nas, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and many more.And for fans of hip-hop in the 1990s, h