Donald Byrd Music

coltrane is on this one.so is donald byrd....nothing more to say

How easy it is to dismiss, ignore, take for granted the brilliance of Red Garland. On the other hand, maybe Coltrane deserves the credit for bringing out the best in these "merely" frontline musicians. "All Mornin' Long" is a Bb blues running over 20 minutes. Coltrane has the first solo--probing, passionate, daring. Time for the ensuing players to run for cover or stand up like real men. Donald Byrd, always a tasteful and melodic if "safe" player, practically goes for broke for a change. He employs some half-valve effects (rare for Byrd) and aims for some upper-register notes that aren't there (no matter--it's one of the few recorded moments when Byrd really reaches). Then it's Red's turn.

Red not only holds his own but makes you forget about what's preceded--not through blazing technique or adventurous innovation but ceaseless invention and an incorporation of every possible style. He alternates "trite" rhythm and blues riffs with breathtakingly lithe, Powell-like single-note lines; he moves to his "stretched" block chord style for two, not just one, extended stretches; he makes the blocked-chord style work at a tempo that would discourage its use by any other pianist. His solo, however harmonically and melodically "conservative," is a tour de force.

Dozens of pianists have borrowed from the Garland vocabulary--Gene Harris, Wynton Kelly, Monty Alexander, Ahmad Jamal. This recording is just another reminder that there was only one pianist who mastered that language.

I can't add much to the stylistic notes from the always- knowledgeable Mr. Chell in his review. I will say, however, that this is an extremely good introductory album for anyone interested in great, not-watered-down (read, "contemporary" or "mellow") jazz. Coltrane and Garland mesh extremely well together, and even Donald Byrd, not my favorite trumpet player for the reasons stated by Mr. Chell, sounds strong, confident, and in synch with the other musicians. All three songs are masterpieces highlighted by immensely satisfying solos (what else would you expect from musicians of this caliber), especially the title cut and the slightly boppish take on "They Can't Take That Away From Me."

This was one of the first jazz albums I owned; I purchased a used vinyl with a notation on the cover that read something like "scratchy but excellent!" I listened to it many times, and the supremacy of the musicians rose like cream through the worn record. Fortunately, I found it again at Amazon.com in CD form, and am enjoying it just as much as when the jazz genre was so new to me. Yes, it's a personal favorite with some history behind it, but its excellence may make it one of your favorites as well.

With George Joyner on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums(who are also featured on "The Best of the Red Garland Quintets," another CD worth checking out.) Engineered by the great Rudy Van Gelder, this 1957 studio date was remastered for its 2001 re-release.

If you are reading these reviews, congratulations. You've discovered the many joys of listening to Red Garland-the anytime pianist.
You are probably aware of Red's charter membership in the first great Miles Davis quintet. It's probably how you came to delve further into his oeuvre.

Maybe you are aware that the Miles Davis group went into the Prestige Studios (actually Rudy Van Gelder's living room-where so many great Prestige and Blue Note albums were recorded) on May 11, 1956 & October 26, 1956 and, in two marathon sessions, whipped out 4 albums worth of material to complete his contractual obligations to Prestige that allowed him to go over to Columbia. Those are landmark sessions in the history of Jazz and all are peppered with the work of Red Garland and John Coltrane.

What you may not know is that on November 15, 1957, Red Garland had a marathon session of his own at those same Prestige studios, culminating in 2 1/2 albums worth of insanely quality material featuring his confrere, John Coltrane, a young, inspired (who wouldn't be...in the company of these two giants) Donald Byrd on trumpet and another superb rhythm section of George Joiner and Art Taylor.
This album is one. The other is Soul Junction. And the remaining tracks can be found on High Pressure. It is your duty to seek these out. You won't be disappointed.

I just listened to this compilation for the first time, expecting to hear another re-hashing of these beloved tunes done by a fine ensemble (and completely devoid of character!). However, this is not the typical domesticated Men and Boys rendetion you might be accustomed to.

Red Byrd utilizes not only pronunciation appropriate to the period, but sings these pieces in a manner more like shaped note American tunes. It is, at first, a bit off-putting. However if one bears with it the pieces spring to life in a new way. In no piece is this more striking than "This is the Record of John". The rendetion heard here of the solo line becomes less pious and righteous, and a bit more tongue in cheek with John's repeated "no" answer to the questions asked of him by the Temple elders.

A must! I know of no other disk quite like this.

This CD is the best of the best in acoustical guitar. Being classical guitarists, on this CD LAGQ is like Pavoratti doing a ho down.

Recently I learned about LAGQ and bought this album. I have been impressed by the arrangements and interpretation, the texture, innovative touches and originality. It is a treat!

The LAGQ are fine players, and the music here is first rate as a summary of what they do, or for any purpose. HOWEVER, the transfer to CD on my disc was very poorly chosen, so that the top octave and a half was mostly missing (worse on some pieces than others, though). This takes the snap! out of guitar strings and notably attenuates your ability to tell what the 4 are doing with guitar timbre and the like. So, if you have wide-range audio gear, you might want to look elsewhere for an introduction to these players.

Not until recently did I know about this guitar four. Hearing a number of their songs on internet classical radio, I decided I'd try this one.

What a great surprise --- their arrangements of Copeland to Sousa to Praetorius are excellent and in taste. I'll be venturing into their other works.

At first I did not know anything about LAGQ. I was taking an intro to guitar class on the campus of USC. One of my assignments was to attend two guitar performances happening on campus and write about each. I was so fortunate to have picked LAGQ. I fell in love with their music and their humor. I was amazed by the variety of sounds coming out of the guitars. Although guitar playing is a hobby for me... these guys inspire me to study the guitar more seriously. This is the first album of theirs I bought. Their rendition of Shenandoah is the best. It is so beautiful I fall asleep to it. Simple Gifts is the most lovely version too. Jumpin' at the Woodside is another favorite... it jazzy bounce makes it a popular choice for background music to any situation. The Main Street Electrical Parade never fails to delight me and surprise my friends when I play it. These guys are silly...but in a good way. Its 2007 now and I still go back to the songs on this album. Great variety. This is a good starter to a LAGQ collection. Go see them live if you can!!!

A split LP finally receiving limited edition reissue on CD, "At Newport" is one of those things that more recent Cecil Taylor fans have been pining after for years-- Taylor's music took such a giant leap between his debut ("Jazz Advance") and its followup (the brilliant "Looking Ahead!") that any light that could be shed on what happened in the 21 months between those recordings is a worthwhile document. This recording is from roughly halfway between those two sessions, and is certainly interesting.

Before I go on, I should fairly state that while I enjoy some hard bop, I generally find the genre to be largely derivative of the mid-40s innovations of Parker, Gillespie, et.al. and am probably not the right person to critique the Gryce/Byrd portion of this show, but I'll take a stab at it anyway.

Also to note before discussing the music-- the early Taylor material on Contemporary, United Artists and Candid (i.e. everything from before 1962) all suffer from poor fidelity courtesy of early '90s reissuing theory. This is the only example of early Taylor to have been remastered and the differences are remarkable-- clean, crisp sound, the original tapes must have been superb as it sounds like it was recording in 1997 not 1957. Good balance too, bass is distinct and clean and not at all muddy (although at least some of this is technique because Wendell Marshall on the second half lacks the clarity that Buell Neidlinger has), piano is resonant across its entire range, really, sonically this is just a pleasure to listen to.

The performance itself-- it really is quite embryonic and shows the development of Taylor's style well. First thing that's clear is that Steve Lacy is fully integrated with Taylor's sound-- on his two cuts on "Jazz Advance", he sounded distinct and separated from Taylor-- here he sounds fully integrated with the leader. Taylor for his part makes little difference in his comping and his soloing style, providing counterpoint, countermelody, and harmony to the voice of Lacy (in fact quite similar to the way he'd play several years down the road). Admittedly, Taylor's playing is rather conservative compared to where he'd go, but his clustered chords are starting to emerge amidst more conventional soloing patterns-- my comment on "Jazz Advance" is equally valid here-- he sounds like he's improvising in a neoclassical context with swing rather than where he'd end up. A lot of this could be because of his rhythm section-- bassist Buell Neidlinger and drummer Dennis Charles have a harder time escaping the hard bop idiom than Lacy is having, and they're playing is still strongly grounded in that area (although check out Charles trading fours on "Nona's Blues"-- he's seriously caught fire!). Taylor even seems to yield to his rhythm section halfway, particularly on the originals. Taylor is in fact at his most extreme (for '57 anyway) on Billy Strayhorn's "Johnny Come Lately", where Lacy totally deconstructs the melody and Taylor is propulsive below him.

The set by the Gigi Gryce-Donald Byrd Jazz Laboratory (featuring Gryce on alto, Byrd on trumpet, pianist Hank Jones, bassist Wendell Marshall, and drummer Osie Johnson) is firmly lodged in advanced hard bop, although when placed alongside even Taylor's relatively early work, it sounds positively conservative, most notably in Jones' performance-- the contrast between him and Taylor leaves his comping behind the generally firey Byrd and (to a lesser extent) Gryce to seem rather dull. Blues "Batland" in the middle is a pretty dull number that holds very little interest and seems to be uninspiring to Byrd, but opener "Splittin'" (introduced as "Ray's Way") fares slightly better, in particular because of some ferocious playing from Johnson (although oddly enough when the spotlight turns on him, he seems far less interesting). One website referred to the set as a chaser after Taylor's, and this is probably accurate, its really quite difficult to think of this as anything but music to cool off to.

All in all, its a reasonable set, of most interest to Taylor fans for its crispness and (until recently) rarity.