Donald Byrd
Slow Drag

LA RECENSIONE

It seems to me that it might be interesting to continue the path started with the album “Royal Flush” and follow the artistic trajectory of this African American trumpeter who has had an extraordinarily long career focused on the evolution of jazz music from the Bop period to Fusion. The artist, of course, is Donald Byrd.

“Slow Drag” is his 41st album, if we include those as a sideman and those as a bandleader. Recorded for Blue Note at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs (NJ), it was released in December 1968.

This is Byrd's last Hard Bop album before his “transition” to fusion, an artistic choice culminating in the 1973 masterpiece “Black Byrd.”

It is a very pleasant album to listen to, both for the freshness of rhythmic tracks that range from swing to bossa nova, and for the remarkable compositional quality and extraordinary versatility and balance between canonical phrasing and the modernity of improvisations.

It could not be otherwise, given that the session musicians are all excellent and well-coordinated performers who have come from live performances at New York's Five Spot Café. Here’s the complete lineup: Sonny Red on alto saxophone, Cedar Walton on piano, Walter Booker on double bass, and Billy Higgins on drums and scat on the track that gives the album its title.

It starts right from “Slow Drag” with Cedar Walton's piano creating the groove with Donald's and Sonny's horns, while Higgins rolls his drums and steals the scene with an improvised conversation that is more of an occasionally incomprehensible muttering.

“Secret Love” is a cover of a 1950s hit by Doris Day. The track has a modal structure that opens up to a very engaging swing rhythm.

“Book’s Bossa” has a bossa nova rhythm from the start, as the title suggests. The phrasing between drums, bass, and horns is delightful, with Walton's piano creating the harmonic background.

Side B opens with “Jelly Roll” which, although it shamelessly draws inspiration from Lee Morgan's “Sidewinder,” is a track of great energy and drive.

It is followed by “The Loner” where the interplay between Cedar and Donald is beautiful and enhanced by Booker's bass lines.

The album closes with the jazz standard “My Ideal” (written by Leo Robin, Newell Chase, and Richard Whiting) enriched by a magnificent arrangement characterized by Higgins' brushed whirlwind, Booker's fluid bass line, and the melodic phrasing of Byrd's and Red's horns.

The cover and back cover photos are by Charles Keddie. The model is Lorraine Glover, Byrd’s beautiful wife. In the splendid and meticulously curated (in every aspect) “Tone Poet” edition curated by Joe Harley, some stunning black & white photos of the musicians taken by the legendary Francis Wolff are included.

I can only wish you a good listen to this beautiful piece of jazz music history.