Donald Byrd - Byrd's Eye View (Mono)
Trumpet - Donald Byrd [click here to see more vinyl featuring Donald Byrd]
Bass - Doug Watkins [click here to see more vinyl featuring Doug Watkins]
Drums - Art Blakey [click here to see more vinyl featuring Art Blakey]
Piano - Horace Silver [click here to see more vinyl featuring Horace Silver]
Tenor saxophone - Hank Mobley [click here to see more vinyl featuring Hank Mobley]
Trumpet - Joe Cordon
Written by Charles Greenlee (A2), Tom Adair, Matt Dennis (B1), Hank Mobley (B2-3)
A1 is a traditional song
1 LP, Standard sleeve
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33RPM
Size : 12”
Mono
Studio
Record Press : Record Technology Incorporated
Label : Blue Note Tone Poet
Original Label : Transition
Recorded December 2, 1955 at Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Original session produced by Tom Wilson
Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio
Reissue produced by Joe Harley
Originally released in 1956
Reissued in February 2024
Tracks :
Side A:
- Doug's Blues
- El Sino
Side B:
- Everything Happens to Me
- Hank's Tune
- Hank's Other Tune
Reviews :
"For all intents and purposes, a Jazz Messengers session issued under Donald Byrd's name, Byrd's Eye View, captures the young trumpeter in full command of his estimable powers -- the visceral intensity of this music is remarkable, galvanized by the typically stellar playing of drummer Art Blakey, pianist Horace Silver, tenorist Hank Mobley, and bassist Doug Watkins. Fellow trumpeter Joe Gordon pushes Byrd to new extremes -- his solos are as physical as a heavyweight boxer yet as graceful as a ballerina. And despite the length and scope of the tracks, Byrd remains in complete control, performing with an authority and technical prowess that belie his age. An excellent hard bop date most readily available via the 2002 Blue Note reissue The Transition Sessions." AllMusic Review by Jason Ankeny
"One of Byrd’s first albums as leader at the age of 23, joined by the young 25-year-old Hank Mobley, and fellow trumpet-player Joe Gordon, ably supported by stalwarts Blakey, Silver and Watkins. It is also a “live concert setting”, a fairly novel idea as to how to get the best performance and recording. Whilst Van Gelder would often take all his recording equipment out to Bohemia or Birdland to record a live date, on this occasion they brought a live audience into a recording studio in Cambridge Massachusetts, no doubt Harvard and MIT hep-cats diggin’ the scene, to give the musicians audience rapport. Cool idea and an improvement on the Village Vanguard clink of cutlery, and Bohemia’s boisterous drinkers. Nothing but the sound of twenty hep-cats gently stroking their goatees, and breathing the occasional Yeah. Very cool." London Jazz Collector
Ratings:
AllMusic : 4 / 5 ; Discogs : 4.78 / 5