Donald Byrd Byrd In Flight UHQCD

Numbered, Limited Edition UHQCD!
Playable on any CD player, the Ultimate High Quality CD greatly surpasses all previous CDs before it!
When trumpeter Donald Byrd's fourth Blue Note album was released, it was clear that his playing had gotten better and better over time. "Byrd In Flight", which featured Duke Pearson on piano and drummer Lex Humphries throughout, was joined by bassists Doug Watkins and Reggie Workman, as well as tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley and alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. The songs are mainly penned by Byrd, but it is pianist Pearson who contributes the strongest compositions to "Byrd In Flight and helps the quintet to musical heights.
Of the Pearson originals, "Gate City" with Mobley is an attractive soul shuffle. "Bo" with Byrd and McLean is a singing, light blues and "My Girl Shirl" is a Byrd-led bopper with McLean in the background and a short Latin break. Dedicated to the liberation of the African country, Byrd's "Ghana" is a hip, modal and confident Afro-Cuban hard bop streaker. "Lex" is again dedicated to pure hard bop teaching, while the outstanding version of the ballad standard "Little Boy Blue" rounds off the album in a sensual way.
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 sessions for "Byrd In Flight" took place on January 17 and 25 and July 10, 1960 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
• Hank Mobley, tenor sax
• Jackie McLean, alto sax
• Duke Pearson, piano
• Doug Watkins, bass
• Reginald Workman, bass
• Lex Humphries, drums

Selections:

1. Ghana
2. Little Boy Blue
3. Gate City
4. Lex
5. "Bo"
6. My Shy Girl