Donald Byrd

At The Half Note Cafe Volume 1 is a live hard bop set by the Donald Byrd quintet, taped at the Half Note in Manhattan on 11 November 1960. Blue Note issued it in 1961, together with a second volume from the same night. Byrd was two years into his long run with the label. He was also in the middle of a productive streak that had already given Off To The Races, Byrd In Hand, Fuego and Byrd In Flight.

The front line pairs Byrd's trumpet with the baritone saxophone of Pepper Adams, a contrast of bright and heavy that gives the band its sound. Duke Pearson is on piano, Laymon Jackson on bass and Lex Humphries on drums. Rudy Van Gelder recorded the evening on location. The first side opens with a spoken introduction by WOV disc jockey Ruth Mason. She later married the label's founder and became Ruth Lion.

The band starts at full speed with Pearson's up-tempo My Girl Shirl, then drops into Soulful Kiddy, a blues by Byrd. The second side, introduced by Byrd himself, opens with a ballad reading of A Portrait Of Jennie. It is followed by another Byrd blues, Cecile, on which the quintet stretches out, and the set closes with the band's theme.

The original liner notes were written by Leonard Feather. Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Thom Jurek stressed how hard this quintet swung, and the lyricism and timing it brought to the material. The Penguin Guide To Jazz was more reserved. It found the sessions well played and atmospherically recorded, but showing both the best and the worst of Byrd.

This stereo Tone Poet edition was produced by Joe Harley and mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analogue master tapes. It is pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI and housed in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket. The front cover reproduces the original stereo release, with its "STEREO" sticker.