Byrd Jazz
1956 live album by Donald Byrd
Byrd Jazz is an album by trumpeter Donald Byrd recorded in Detroit in 1955 and originally released on Tom Wilson's Transition label. The album contains Byrd's first recordings as a leader (although the sessions that comprised Byrd's Eye View were released first), and was later re-released as First Flight on the Delmark label.
Reception
In his review for Allmusic, Scott Yanow stated "all of the music is straightahead and swinging. A fine beginning for the very interesting career of Donald Byrd". The Penguin Guide to Jazz criticized the recording quality, and rated Lateef's soloing as more authoritative than that of Byrd.
Track listing
All compositions by Donald Byrd except as indicated
"Blues" (Clifford Brown)* - 6:15
"Torsion Level" - 6:26
"Woody 'n' You" (Dizzy Gillespie) - 7:32
"Dancing in the Dark" (Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz) - 7:37
"Parisian Thoroughfare" (Bud Powell) - 14:26
"Yusef" (Barry Harris) - 5:36
"Shaw 'Nuff" (Ray Brown, Gil Fuller, Dizzy Gillespie) - 6:50
* the name of this track on the original LP was Blues but it is Clifford Brown's theme The Blues Walk which was first recorded and released on the 1954 album "Clifford Brown & Max Roach".
The public source identifies “Byrd Jazz” as 1956 live album by Donald Byrd. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Byrd, Jazz and live.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5004221. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955 and 1954.
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This entry incorporates text from “Byrd Jazz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.