Donal Byrd Doug Watkins

This CD compilation collects three separate sessions recorded by Donald Byrd and Doug Watkins for Transition with various small groups. The 1955 recordings (first issued under the title Byrd's Eye View) were made shortly after Byrd replaced Kenny Dorham in the Jazz Messengers, all of whom (Horace Silver, Art Blakey, and Hank Mobley, along with Byrd and Watkins) are present, with the addition of local trumpeter Joe Gordon as a guest on two tracks. The half-dozen songs mix an improvised blues ("Doug's Blues"), a favorite from the swing era ("Crazy Rhythm"), a ballad feature for Byrd and Mobley ("Everything Happens to Me"), plus a pair of potent hard bop pieces contributed by the tenor saxophonist…

AVID Jazz is proud to introduce an exciting new addition to our Four Classic Album series, Four Classic Jazz Instrumentalists. We continue with Four Classic Jazz Bassists, a re-mastered 2CD set complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details.

Alphonse Mouzon, Ronnie Laws, Donal Byrd - Blue Note Live At The Roxy Vol. 1 (1976) {2012 Japanese BNLA Series TOCJ-50533}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 313 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 112 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 308 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1976, 2012 Blue Note / EMI Music Japan | TOCJ-50533
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Soul Jazz / Jazz Funk

An overlooked gem from Blue Note – a special live performance that brings together some of the label's funkiest and most soulful artists of the 70s! The set's somewhat unusual for Blue Note at the time – especially given the label's increasingly studio-driven approach to jazz, with projects by the Mizell Brothers and others – yet given that bent, the whole thing's a great illustration of the vibrancy of all these artists always from the studio – playing live and extremely funky!

Trumpeter Donald Byrd spent a few months in France in 1958, and a Paris concert resulted in two LPs' worth of material. Byrd's quintet at the time included Bobby Jaspar (on tenor and flute), pianist Walter Davis, Jr., bassist Doug Watkins, and drummer Art Taylor. Byrd was just beginning to find his own sound in the late '50s and he is in excellent form on "Dear Old Stockholm," Sonny Rollins' "Paul's Pal," Jaspar's "Flute Blues," "Ray's Idea," and "The Blues Walk." This is a fine all-around hard bop session.