Donald Byrd Slow Drag UHQCD

Numbered, Limited Edition UHQCD!
Playable on any CD player, the Ultimate High Quality CD greatly surpasses all previous CDs before it!
After more than a dozen albums as part of his Blue Note signing, Donald Byrd's "Slow Drag" was one of the last pure hard bop sessions that the brilliant trumpeter recorded together with Sonny Red (alto saxophone), Cedar Walton (piano), Walter Booker (bass), Billy Higgins (drums, vocals) before his music developed in the direction of fusion. "Slow Drag" begins with the title track, a ten-minute groove firework. "Secret Love", a 1950s hit for Doris Day, becomes a modal jazz piece that transitions into a slight happy swing before Booker and Walton bring Brazilian flair to the action on "Book's Bossa". Sonny Red's buoyant boogaloo number "Jelly Roll" raises the energy level, followed by Walton's soulful jazz waltz "The Loner". The album ends with the ballad "My Ideal", which proves Byrd's dazzling melodies.
In the course of the extremely popular "Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series", Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for the analog reissues of Blue Note US such as "Tone Poet" and "Classic Vinyl" - as a limited Japanese UHQCD with OBI Stripe. The original recording session for "Slow Drag" took place on May 12, 1967 at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. UHQCDs, unlike conventional CDs, are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. To protect the softer photopolymer from scratching, another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied. The combination results in a significantly reduced reflection of the laser light inside the CD and an unrivalled precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with normal CD players. Musically, the result is a sound that is strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.
While Universal Music Japan's first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now being released with increasing popularity. Typically, the master tapes of the Universal Archive are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not have a SACD player.

Features:

• Numbered, Limited Edition
• Made in Japan
• Superior Crystal Sound
• Ultimate High Quality CD
• XRCD-Like Luxury Digipak
• Playable on conventional CD players

Musicians:

• Donald Byrd, trumpet
• Sonny Red, alto sax
• Cedar Walton, piano
• Walter Booker, bass
• Billy Higgins, drums, vocals

Selections:

1. Slow Drag
2. Secret Love
3. Book's Bossa
4. Jelly Roll
5. The Loner
6. My Ideal