Donald Byrd - Byrd In Flight

180-gram LP

Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tape

Plated and pressed at RTI

The Blue Note Tone Poet Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was' admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley (from Music Matters), a.k.a. the "Tone Poet," on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.

The high-spirited soloing of trumpeter Donald Byrd and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley on "Ghana" — the opening track of Byrd In Flight — lets listeners know that they are in for an exceptional musical experience. In addition to Mobley, Byrd is joined by Jackie Mclean on alto saxophone, Duke Pearson on piano, bassists Doug Watkins and Reggie Workman, and drummer Lex Humphries on these sessions from 1960. Other highlights include Byrd's stunning ballad tour-de-force on "Little Girl Blue" and the hard bop swingers "My Girl Shirl" and "Lex," the latter featuring an especially soulful solo from Mobley.

Side A

Ghana

Little Boy Blue

Gate City

Side B

Lex

Bo

My Girl Shirt

Customer Reviews (5.00 Stars) 3 person(s) rated this product.

Another Great Tone Poet Reissue posted on 06/12/2021 5 Stars Reviewer: Brian VanPelt As usual, there is almost no surface noise. All of the instruments sound very detailed and the recording doesn't seem old at all. All of the sounds are vibrant and dynamic, but not cut as loud as most of the other Tone Poets. I believe Mr. Byrd hits some notes that usually lead to some tape distortion, but not on this album. I think because of the age of the recording, you almost expect his trumpet to distort, but the recording holds up well. On some record players, I expect there to be some mistracking, but my needle also held up. The setup is Byrd on the left, the piano is in the middle, and the drums are on the right. Somewhere around the drummer is the bass player. Saxes sometimes appear on both sides. I felt some depth to the sound as well. There's not much else to say about these Tone Poet records. I'm going to buy as many as I can. This is a solid entry. Grade: 4.5

A Gem posted on 06/11/2021 5 Stars Reviewer: Christopher A wonderful swinging and sophisticated album.

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