Slow Drag [Remaster]

Performer: Donald Byrd
Artist: Sonny Red; Cedar Walton; Walter Booker; Billy Higgins
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Donald Byrd (trumpet); Billy Higgins (vocals, drums); Sonny Red (alto saxophone); Cedar Walton (piano); Walter Booker (bass). Producer: Alfred Lion. Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna. Recorded at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Originally released on Blue Note (84292). Includes liner notes by Nat Hentoff and Bob Blumenthal. All tracks have been digitally remastered. This is part of Blue Note's Rudy Van Gelder Edition series. Personnel: Donald Byrd (trumpet); Billy Higgins (vocals, drums); Sonny Red (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone); Cedar Walton (piano). Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder. Liner Note Authors: Nat Hentoff; Bob Blumenthal. Recording information: New York, NY (05/12/1967); The Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, NJ (05/12/1967). Photographer: Francis Wolff. Slow Drag was one of trumpeter Donald Byrd's final hard bop dates. Teamed with altoist Sonny Red, pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Walter Booker and drummer Billy Higgins (who takes a surprise vocal on the title cut), this quintet outing features originals by Byrd, Walton and Red along with the standards "Secret Love" and "My Ideal." The music in general finds Byrd looking both backwards toward the blues and forwards toward modal music and hints of the avant-garde. A fine effort. ~ Scott Yanow

Q (3/02, p.132) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Byrd's trumpet sound has a rawness and candour close to Miles Davis' music of the period..."

Donald Byrd set the standard for hard-bop trumpet in his days as a regular on the Prestige and Blue Note labels. His brassy tone and adventurous solos, coupled with a deep sense of the blues, made him one of the most in-demand trumpeters of the 1950s and '60s. Later, Byrd turned to the R&B-influenced side of jazz, which sustained him through several successful years in the late '60s. By the 1970s, Byrd had fully embraced funk and R&B in the form of his popular group, the Blackbyrds. In the '90s, Byrd was introduced to a new crowd when he was a featured performer on rapper Guru's groundbreaking JAZZMATAZZ.

Click Here for Shipping Options and Policies

Shipping or Dimension weight in pounds: 0.25