Donald Byrd ”Up With Donald Byrd”

Donald Byrd

”Up With Donald Byrd”
( LP Verve Records, 1964 )
Catalog # V/V6 8609

Personnel & Tracklisting:
Donald Byrd (tp)
Jimmy Heath (ts -2)
Herbie Hancock (p)
Kenny Burrell (g)
Bob Cranshaw (b)
Grady Tate (d)
The Donald Byrd Singers (vocal group)
Claus Ogerman (arr, cond)
Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ, October 6, 1964
You’re Talkin’ About My Baby
Blind Man, Blind Man

Donald Byrd (tp)
Jimmy Heath (ts -1/3)
Herbie Hancock (p)
Kenny Burrell (g)
Bob Cranshaw (b)
Grady Tate (d)
The Donald Byrd Singers (vocal group)
Claus Ogerman (arr, cond)
Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ, November 2, 1964
Boom Boom
My Babe
See See Rider
House Of The Rising Sun

Donald Byrd (tp)
Stanley Turrentine (ts -1,2)
Herbie Hancock (p)
Kenny Burrell (g -1,2)
Ron Carter (b)
Grady Tate (d)
Candido Camero (per -1,2)
The Donald Byrd Singers (vocal group)
Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ, December 16, 1964
Bossa
Cantaloupe Island
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

Review:
Trumpeter Donald Byrd took a brief vacation from Blue Note to record this one album for Verve; it has since been reissued as part of a two-fer put out under guitarist Grant Green’s name. The music is mostly pretty forgettable despite such top sidemen as tenors Stanley Turrentine and Jimmy Heath, pianist Herbie Hancock and guitarist Kenny Burrell. Byrd mostly sticks to current pop tunes and most of the songs utilize a rather average vocal group listed as “The Donald Byrd Singers.” The arrangements by Claus Ogerman, Byrd and Hancock are unimaginative and these renditions of “House of the Rising Sun,” “My Babe” and a few of Hancock’s originals are quite forgettable. A lesser effort.
By Scott Yanow (AMG)

By Pier