Personnel:
Donald Byrd (tp), Hans Koller, Stan Getz (ts), Hans Hammerschmid (p), Doug Watkins (b), Art Taylor (d)
Reference: FSRCD1172
Bar code: 8427328611725
Voted New Star on Trumpet in Down Beat’s 1957 Critics Poll and Heard on no fewer than 36 recording sessions that same year, Donald Byrd was one of the fastest-rising talents of the hard-bop movement then reshaping the New York jazz scene. In July 1958, he assembled a quartet with a rhythm section featuring Walter Davis Jr., Doug Watkins, and Art Taylor for his first European tour, which took him to jazz festivals and concert appearances in Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, and Norway. Tenor saxophonist Bobby Jaspar joined the group on several occasions during the tour and became a regular collaborator during Byrd’s subsequent stay in Paris.
Drawn from the archives of Südwestfunk radio, these rare performances were recorded live at the Jazz keller in Karlsruhe, Germany, in August 1958. Featuring Austrian tenor saxophonist Hans Koller on a couple of tracks, they capture the brilliance, energy, and growing individuality of Donald Byrd, one of the most important trumpet voices of modern jazz. The collection is rounded out by a radio performance of John Lewis’s “Fontessa,” recorded at the Südwestfunk studios in Baden-Baden on July 29, 1958, featuring guest tenor saxophonist Stan Getz.
—Jordi Pujol
