Donal Byrd Doug Watkins

Phil Woods - Pairing Off (1956) {2013 Japan Prestige 7000 Chronicle SHM-CD HR Cutting Series, UCCO-5246}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 197 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 107 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 314 Mb | 5% repair rar | DSD / HR Cutting Remaster
© 1956, 2013 Prestige / Concord / Universal Japan | UCCO-5246 | Mono | PRLP 7046
Jazz / Hard Bop / Saxophone / Trumpet

Reissue features the latest digital remastering and the high-fidelity SHM-CD format (compatible with standard CD player) and the latest DSD / HR Cutting remastering. Comes with a description. Features the original LP designs. The title of this excellent CD reissue comes from the fact that the featured septet consists of two altos (Phil Woods and Gene Quill) and two trumpets (Donald Byrd and Kenny Dorham) in addition to a rhythm section (pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Doug Watkins, and drummer Philly Joe Jones). Of the pairings, Woods and Dorham were more distinctive in 1956, but both Quill and Byrd get in some good licks. The full group stretches out on four lengthy numbers: three Woods originals and the ballad "Suddenly It's Spring."

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Originally (1956) {Columbia ‎COL4718722 rel 1990}
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© 1956, 1990 Columbia / Sony Music | COL 471872 2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Drums

This LP contains valuable performances by the early Jazz Messengers that sat unissued until decades later. Four selections feature the band when drummer Art Blakey and pianist Horace Silver were co-leaders; trumpeter Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley on tenor and bassist Doug Watkins were also in that quintet. Two numbers from June 1956 find Blakey as sole leader of The Messengers for the first time, heading an otherwise unrecorded unit with Byrd and multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan.

6 Pieces of Silver is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note label in 1957 featuring performances by Silver with Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, Doug Watkins and Louis Hayes. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars and states "The early Silver quintet was essentially the Jazz Messengers of the year before but already the band was starting to develop a sound of its own. "Señor Blues" officially put Horace Silver on the map".

Pepper Adams - The Complete Regent Sessions (1957) {Fresh Sound FRS-CD 491 rel 2008}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 356 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 143 Mb
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© 1957, 2008 Fresh Sound Records | FRS-CD 491
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Baritone Saxophone

A companion release to Hollywood Quintet Sessions, The Complete Regent Sessions (including tracks from the LPs Art Pepper/Sonny Redd, Jazz Is Busting Out All Over, and The Cool Sound of Pepper Adams), also from 1957, features emerging baritone saxophone star Pepper Adams in a series of lengthy jazz jams, unlike the shorter and compact studio recordings he did with West Coast musicians. These two East Coast dates done during the early winter in Hackensack, NJ, at Rudy Van Gelder's house studio feature Adams' running mates who matriculated from Detroit to New York City with him, including Doug Watkins (who was also on the Hollywood tracks), Elvin Jones on all selections, Hank Jones, and Bernard McKinney.

John Coltrane - The Prestige Recordings (1956-58) [16CD BoxSet] {1991 Prestige Remaster}
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© 1991 Prestige / Fantasy | 16PCD-4405-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Modal Jazz / Saxophone

The two and a half years represented in this mammoth collection made up a period of great activity and development for young John Coltrane. It was a time in which he worked in the Miles Davis Quintet, then joined Thelonious Monk for his historic Five Spot engagement, and then took his place in the legendary 1958 Miles Davis Sextet. It was a time in which he grew from a somewhat promising tenor player to a supernova about to burst upon the jazz world. It was also a span during which Trane traveled with great regularity to the original New Jersey location of the Rudy Van Gelder Studio, taking part in no less than 25 lengthy Prestige recording sessions.

Art Blakey - The Jazz Messengers (1956) {2010 Columbia Vinyl Replica Remaster}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 309 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 183 Mb
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© 1956, 2010 Columbia / Legacy | 88697720092-03
Jazz / Hard Bop

The very first edition of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers was unfortunately short-lived, and as excellent as they were collectively, it was the beginning of a trend for the members of this group to come and go. Unbeknown to Blakey at the time, he would become a champion for bringing talent from the high minor leagues to full-blown jazz-star status, starting with this band featuring Detroit trumpeter Donald Byrd, East coast tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, and pianist Horace Silver, a jazz legend ever after.

Mobley was born in Eastman, Georgia, but was raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey, near Newark. When he was 16, an illness kept him in the house for several months. His uncle thought of buying a saxophone to help him occupy his time, and it was then that Mobley began to play. He tried to enter a music school in Newark, but couldn't, since he was not a resident, so he kept studying through books at home. At 19, he started to play with local bands and, months later, worked for the first time with musicians like Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach. He took part in one of the earliest hard bop sessions, alongside Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Doug Watkins and trumpeter Kenny Dorham. The results of these sessions were released as Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers.