Donald Byrd

On November 11, 1960, trumpeter Donald Byrd brought his quintet into the Half Note Cafe in Manhattan, and Blue Note recorded the night for two LPs. This second volume holds four long performances of soulful, swinging hard bop. Byrd was only two years into a Blue Note career that would last two decades, and he was on a creative streak.

The studio albums Off To The Races, Byrd In Hand, Fuego and Byrd In Flight had established him as one of the leading trumpeters on the scene. At the Half Note his partner in the front line is Pepper Adams on baritone saxophone, a pairing that gives the ensemble a dark, full bottom. Duke Pearson is on piano, Laymon Jackson on bass and Lex Humphries on drums. Rudy Van Gelder recorded the set on location, and Leonard Feather wrote the original sleeve notes.

The record opens straight into Pearson's brightly swinging Jeannine, stretched here to almost thirteen minutes. Byrd contributes two pieces. Pure D. Funk was the band's bluesy theme song, heard here in an extended version. Kimyas is a hard-grooving tune that again runs past eleven minutes and lets every soloist build at length. The set closes on a lilting reading of the ballad When Sonny Gets Blue, by Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal.

The first volume carries the rest of the night, including Pearson's My Girl Shirl and Byrd's Cecile. Byrd and Adams recorded together often in those years, from 10 To 4 At The 5 Spot in 1958 to The Creeper in 1967. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (1992) found the Half Note sessions "atmospherically recorded", while noting that they reveal both the best and the worst of Byrd as a soloist.

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 packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.