Search - Donald Byrd :: Byrd in Paris

For personal use.

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 05/06/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As a high school exchange student in Paris 1958, I had a chance to catch this group, only the second live jazz ensemble I'd ever heard. This recording captures the concert date Byrd gave in July of '58, after which he did another 6 months at a small cavern called "Le Chat Qui Peche" (where I heard him). All of the members of Byrd's quintet--Bobby Jasper, woodwinds; Walter Davis, piano; Art Taylor, drums; and Doug Watkins, bass--are major players whose names, 45 years later, are still invoked by numerous young musicians and jazz followers. This concert date is distinguished neither for the quality of the musicianship nor the audio quality. It's "merely" highly competent, not especially memorable, work by a "hard bop" group whose importance is necessarily overshadowed by similar groups--namely, Miles Davis's Quintet, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and the Horace Silver Quintet. Byrd is heard to better advantage with Art Blakey or on his own dates on the Prestige or Transition label."