Lee Morgan & Donald Byrd

[Peter Friedman]

My favorite Blue Note sessions by Lee Morgan and Donald Byrd as leaders were recorded between November 1956 and September 1961.

The 7 Blue Note recordings of Morgan and 7 by Byrd from November 1956  to September 1961  did NOT have any Boogaloo tunes. They also did not have any modal tunes on them. 

I suspect that these two factors above play an important role in my preference.

Both Morgan and Byrd recorded for a number of other labels during that same time period, and I like most of them too. But the Blue Note albums are the ones I prefer.

LEE MORGAN

Indeed - 11/56

Vol.2 - 12/56

Vol.3 - 3/57

City Lights - 8/57

The Cooker - 9/57

Candy - 11/57 & 12/57

Lee-Way - 4/60

 

DONALD BYRD

Off To The Races - 12/58

Byrd I Hand - 5/59

Fuego - 10/59

At the Half Note - 11/60

Chant - 4/61

The Cat Walk - 5/61

Royal Flush - 9/61

 

 

 

 

 

[HutchFan]

Two delicious slices of pie from these artists' discographies.  

I enjoy other slices too -- but I can see how the albums listed above align with your stated preferences.   

 

[Dub Modal]

Cool to break them out like this. I love those records too. Without looking, several if not all the Byrd albums have Pepper Adams on them I think. 

[mjzee]

How about the one that had both Byrd and Morgan?

[felser]

Byrd then recorded 'Free Form' (my favorite album by him) on December 11, 1961, even though it wasn't released until 1966.  I realize that has some modal tunes.  The title track continues to blow my mind, and seems years ahead of its time.

Edited April 22 by felser

[Peter Friedman]

20 hours ago, mjzee said:

How about the one that had both Byrd and Morgan?

I would have included this one, but only listed albums with Morgan or Byrd as leaders. This one shows Mobley as leader.

[JSngry]

All things being equal, Billy Higgins.

[felser]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

All things being equal, Billy Higgins.

Amen to that!

[Rooster_Ties]

I only fairy recently picked up Lee’s Take Twelve with Clifford Jordan for the first time — it’s from Jan 1962 (just slightly after OP’s time-window) — after having owned all of Lee’s Blue Note output for 20+ years (but very little of his non-BN work).

Have to say Take Twelve is a darn nice album.

I got it primarily because I’ve been on a little bit of a Clifford Jordan binge — and it did not disappoint in any way.

[felser]

2 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

I got it primarily because I’ve been on a little bit of a Clifford Jordan binge.

Be sure to check this one out if you haven't already:

[Rooster_Ties]

4 hours ago, felser said:

Be sure to check this one out if you haven't already:

Have had SBS! for 15+ years.

But I just learned (this morning) that Clifford Jordan is on two of Lee’s Vee-Jay leader-dates from 1960.

(And here all this time I thought all the stuff with Lee on Vee-Jay was with Wayne Shorter.)

I’m at my dad’s all this week, and haven’t had the chance to even sample them. But what do people think of those two VJ Lee dates with CJ??

[felser]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

But what do people think of those two VJ Lee dates with CJ??

They're solid ca. 1960 hard bop, but not up to BN standards and a step below Take 12.  A lot of Vee Jay jazz albums always have struck me as the whole being less than the sum of the parts.  Exceptions to that are the Eddie Harris and Wayne Shorter albums on the label.

[bertrand]

I am a huge fan of the two Lee Vee-Jay dates. They are a little different than the Blue Notes from that era, not sure how to describe why.

[Holy Ghost]

On 4/21/2025 at 10:43 PM, felser said:

Byrd then recorded 'Free Form' (my favorite album by him) on December 11, 1961, even though it wasn't released until 1966.  I realize that has some modal tunes.  The title track continues to blow my mind, and seems years ahead of its time.

Have Free Form in my hands right now. Spinning now. 

[Holy Ghost]

On 4/22/2025 at 11:10 PM, felser said:

They're solid ca. 1960 hard bop, but not up to BN standards and a step below Take 12.  A lot of Vee Jay jazz albums always have struck me as the whole being less than the sum of the parts.  Exceptions to that are the Eddie Harris and Wayne Shorter albums on the label.

Yeah, have the Wayne Shorter VJ's that were issued, which I really like (no one sounds like Wayne but Wayne) but can't compare much more with the other VJ's I have which is Kelly at Midnight and the Frank Strozier, no Lee's. Right, not going to blow your mind, but I like how you framed it: solid-ca 1960 hard bop. Cool by these ears. 👍

On 4/21/2025 at 10:43 PM, felser said:

Byrd then recorded 'Free Form' (my favorite album by him) on December 11, 1961, even though it wasn't released until 1966.  I realize that has some modal tunes.  The title track continues to blow my mind, and seems years ahead of its time.

I haven't broken this cd out about the time I bought it about in 2004. Just got to track 5. Wow. Thanks to re-hipping me to this, really digging it. 

[Holy Ghost]

16 minutes ago, Holy Ghost said:

Yeah, have the Wayne Shorter VJ's that were issued, which I really like (no one sounds like Wayne but Wayne) but can't compare much more with the other VJ's I have which is Kelly at Midnight and the Frank Strozier, no Lee's. Right, not going to blow your mind, but I like how you framed it: solid-ca 1960 hard bop. Cool by these ears. 👍

I haven't broken this cd out about the time I bought it about in 2004. Just got to track 5. Wow. Thanks to re-hipping me to this, really digging it. 

Listening again, it almost seems to precipitate where Miles would be going in almost 6 years later. Trippy stuff. 

[Marcus]

On 4/21/2025 at 3:07 PM, mjzee said:

How about the one that had both Byrd and Morgan?

I love that album, but for some reason haven't listen to it for ages. Thanks for reminding me of it!

[Holy Ghost]

6 hours ago, Marcus said:

I love that album, but for some reason haven't listen to it for ages. Thanks for reminding me of it!

Right? Nothing like getting re-hipped to stuff that gone dusty for decades! Got re-hipped to Morgan, Byrd, Mobley, Shorter, etc., because of threads like this.

[Peter Friedman]

20 hours ago, Holy Ghost said:

Right? Nothing like getting re-hipped to stuff that gone dusty for decades! Got re-hipped to Morgan, Byrd, Mobley, Shorter, etc., because of threads like this.

Trying to keep up with the many new releases can easily result in leaving on the shelf the music one has had for many decades. To that end, I have been making an attempt to go back to the CDs I especially like that I have not listened to for a long long time.

One thing I discovered is that I actually much prefer my albums from the earlier periods (50', 60's,70's), to a large percentage of the newer releases I hear. Of course, there are exceptions.