| | Donald Byrd Free Form CD Donald Byrd Discography of CDs
Donald Byrd's 1961 recording Free Form is both a smorgasboard of modern jazz styles and a breakthrough album showing the Detroit-born trumpeter's versatility. Where his brass tone is very lean and toned, he does not resort to outlandish outbursts into the ionosphere, but shows a refined yet daring approach removed from his predecessors or peers, including Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan. With tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, a very young pianist Herbie Hancock, drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Butch Warren, Byrd tackles different flavors of jazz with a voracious appetite.
"Pentecostal Feelin'" comes straight from the Horace Silver bag, original funk with Shorter, Hancock, and Higgins head-noddin' to the band. By contrast, "Nai Nai" is all straight-ahead hard bop. The more modal "French Spice" is still in the hard-to-post bop mold, but has a two-note base until the horns burst out in a rich melody. The title track represents the so-called "New Thing," a tone row-based spontaneous improvisation where the band is purposefully set apart from the inventive drumming of Higgins. Romance is also on the menu via the no-frills ballad "Night Flower" as Byrd serenely leads the band into a curtain closing venture into tenderness. FREE FORM may be close to Donald Byrd's best early work.
Donald Byrd's 1961 recording Free Form is both a smorgasbord of modern jazz styles and a breakthrough album showing the Detroit born trumpeter's versatility and interest in diversity. At age 30, turning down offers to teach and a full decade before turning to commercial funk fusion with his Blackbyrds, Byrd, alongside a wonderful collection of jazz professionals, proves his mettle as an individualist while also stylistically straddling the blurred lines of jazz. Where his brass tone is very lean and toned, he does not resort to outlandish outbursts into the ionosphere, but shows a refined yet daring approach removed from his predecessors or peers -- Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan in particular. With tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, a very young pianist Herbie Hancock, drummer Billy Higgins, and bassist Butch Warren, Byrd tackles different flavors of jazz with a voracious appetite, and delivers a very fresh perspective from them all. From Column A -- soul junction -- "Pentecostal Feelin'" comes straight from the Horace Silver bag, an original funk with Shorter, Hancock, and Higgins head noddin' to the band. Column B's "Nai Nai" is all straight-ahead hard bop, lighter but not wimpy as Byrd and Shorter play well together. The more modal "French Spice" is still in the hard-to-post-bop mold, but has a two-note base until the horns burst out with a rich melody. The title track spectacularly represents the so-called "new thing," a tone row-based, searching, or clarion-type spontaneous improvisation where the band is purposefully set apart from the inventive drumming of Higgins in a firmly non-established meter. Romance is also on the menu via the no frills ballad "Night Flower" as Byrd serenely leads the band into a curtain-closing venture into tenderness, with Hancock's underlying chords something to truly behold upon close listening. This may be close to Donald Byrd's best early work, a strong statement that is by no means homogeneous, but expresses many of the avenues in jazz he was exploring while finding his own unique voice on the trumpet. [The 2004 remastered Rudy Van Gelder edition includes a bonus cut in Hancock's finger-poppin' "Thr
1961. Rvg Remaster W/ 1 Bonus Track.
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on December 11, 1961.
Personnel: Donald Byrd (trumpet); Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Herbie Hancock (piano); Billy Higgins (drums).
Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder.
Liner Note Authors: Nat Hentoff; Bob Blumenthal.
Recording information: Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (12/11/1961).
Photographer: Francis Wolff.
Personnel: Donald Byrd (trumpet); Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Herbie Hancock (piano); Butch Donald Byrd Free Form Songs | 1. | Pentecostal Feelin' | |
| 2. | Night Flower | |
| 3. | Nai Nai | |
| 4. | French Spice | |
| 5. | Free Form | |
| 6. | Three Wishes - (CD only, bonus track) | |
|
Free Form Review
GuidelinesRemember to focus your comments on Donald Byrd Free Form CD. Check our review guidelines for specific details regarding customer review policy. To submit your review, please fill out the above form and click "Submit Review." A staff member will then verify your review meets our guidelines. Upon approval, your review will be published within a few days. Please do not use this form to comment on web site errors or for order related questions. If you have concerns of this nature, please contact customer service by filling out this form.
Purchase Free Form CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Duke Pearson Sweet Honey Bee CD (1966) Bonus Track; Remastered
Free Form
 $8.45   
| | Freddie Hubbard Ready For Freddie CD (1961) Bonus Tracks; Remastered
Free Form
$8.85 
Of all the talented young trumpeters to emerge in the late 1950s, few were gifted with the astonishing technical aptitude of Indianapolis native Freddie Hubbard. Whereas friend, contemporary and erstwhile rival Lee Morgan ...
| | Horace Silver Cape Verdean Blues CD (1965) Remastered
Free Form
$8.85
| | Freddie Hubbard Breaking Point CD (1964) Bonus Tracks; Remastered
Free Form
$9.09
| | Mccoy Tyner Tender Moments CD (1967) Remastered
Free Form
$9.29
| | Enforsaken Sinner's Intuition CD (2006)
Free Form
$13.15
| | Nova Fronteira CD (2006)
Free Form
$20.95
| | Earth, Wind, And Fire Greatest Hits CD (1998) (Import) Import; Germany
Free Form
$9.45
Additional personnel includes: The Emotions, The Phoenix Horns.
Recorded ...
| | Great Dolly Parton CDs (2004) (Import) Australia
Free Form
$11.69
| | Sacha Sacket Shadowed CD (2004)
Free Form
$13.69
Adult alternative has been one of the more female-dominated areas of the music world -- an area where so many of the tastemakers (Sarah McLachlan, Vanessa Carlton, the Indigo Girls and Shawn Colvin, for example) have been women. But largely female isn't the same as exclusively female, and male artists have also made some valuable contributions to the adult alternative field, including John Mayer, the Gin Blossoms, and the underexposed, Philadelphia-based Chet Delcampo, among others. A name that should be added to that list is singer/songwriter Sacha Sacket, whose second album, Shadowed, is as intriguing as it is melancholy and darkly introspective. The intrigue comes into play because of all the clever references in his lyrics -- for example, "Be my story of O" (a reference to the classic French S&M film/book) in "Cockatoo," and "you've grown weary of my Jeckyll and my Hyde" on the title song. But most listeners who hear this excellent sophomore effort probably won't notice Sacket's cleverness as much as they will notice all the sadness and disillusionment in his lyrics; Shadowed is a very dark album, and few rays of sunlight enter Sacket's adult alternative/folk-rock space. One influence who serves the Los Angeles resident pleasingly well is the late Nick Drake; Sacket gives the impression that he could easily recite all the lyrics to "River Man" if called upon to do so. And yet, Shadowed never sounds like it was recorded in the '70s -- not only is the production style more modern, but also, Sacket has no problem incorporating elements of Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan. That isn't to say that any of those direct or indirect influences ever obscure his individuality; Sacket is most certainly his own man, and he shows a great deal of promise on this compelling CD. ~ Alex Henderson
“I experienced a harrowing descent on this album,” Sacha Sacket confesses on his sophomore work, Shadowed (2004). “I felt it was time to delve into ‘dark things,’ go places where I degraded myself, where I was a doormat, where I would destroy someone if I could. Not in an attempt to immediately rectify or justify myself, just to express it. I had to be damaged, to have faults, to show the darkness.”What is perhaps most surprising with ...
| | Zone Alien Nature CD (2005)
Free Form
$17.09
| | Roots Game Theory CD (2006) (Import) Bonus Tracks; Japan
Free Form
$39.39
| | Blue Mood-The Most Beautiful Voices In Jazz CD (2006) (Import)
Free Form
$27.59
|
|
|
21546 
Email a Friend
