Donald Byrd - Mustang! (FLAC+CUE)

Donald Byrd - Mustang! (FLAC+CUE)



Please keep seeding at least 3:1 ratio.



Donald Byrd, a talented hard bop trumpeter during his prime (although rarely reaching the technical heights of Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard), performs a varied repertoire on Mustang!. "Dixie Lee" has dated rhythms, and "Mustang" was an attempt to achieve a hit on the level of Morgan's "The Sidewinder." However, Byrd sounds fine on those numbers; he digs into the complex chord changes of "Fly Little Bird Fly," is sensitive on "I Got It Bad," swings on his "I'm So Excited by You," and performs his memorable countermelody to "On the Trail," which had been recorded earlier by several other musicians. Teamed with a typically impressive Blue Note crew (altoist Sonny Red, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Walter Booker, and drummer Freddie Waits), Byrd performs high-quality straight-ahead jazz that fits the modern mainstream of the era. Also on the CD reissue are a pair of selections ("Gingerbread Boy" and "I'm So Excited by You") from an earlier quintet date (with tenorman Jimmy Heath, Tyner, bassist Walter Booker, and drummer Joe Chambers) that, despite being excellent, went unissued until 1997.



Personnel:

Donald Byrd Quintet

Donald Byrd (tp) Jimmy Heath (ts) McCoy Tyner (p) Walter Booker (b) Joe Chambers (d)

Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, November 18, 1964



Donald Byrd Sextet

Donald Byrd (tp) Sonny Red (as) Hank Mobley (ts) McCoy Tyner (p) Walter Booker (b) Freddie Waits (d)

Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, June 24, 1966



Track Listing:

01 Mustang

02 Fly Little Bird Fly

03 I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good

04 Dixie Lee

05 On the Trail

06 I'm So Excited by You

07 Gingerbread Boy

08 I'm So Excited by You