Customer Reviews

Free Form

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album by Donald Byrd was aptly titled. When you listen to it you hear much space and openess. The first track entitled "Pentacostal Feeling", starts out with Butch Warren doing an ad-lib bass line. Herbie Hancock and Billy Higgins join in to set the groove. Byrd and Wayne Shorter play the simple melody line as if there's nothing to it. Byrds solo is very sparse and made of short effortless lines. Shorter solos with the same spacious feeling. herbie hancock contributes a nice ballad, "Night Flower". Most of the album is straight ahead jazz played with a good sense of freedom. The title track, however, is a much more Free piece not only concerning melodically but rhythmnically as well as some very neat Harmonies between Byrd and Shorter. This is the only recorded set with Byrd and Wayne Shorter together. This is also a fine Rhythmn section that has played before on some bluenote albums. "French Spice" is Hardbop piece that bears some resemblance to Miles Davis' "So What."

This is a great album played in a very free manner.

Five "Blue Note" Stars!! Donald Byrd and an all star cast really fire off a great recording of classic jazz, funk, and adventurous music. Billy Higgins, Butch Warren and the superlative Herbie Hancock are a great rhythm section with front man Wayne Shorter adding his considerable, diverse resume to the proceedings.

The CD's title track, "Free Form", is a great vampy middle eastern-flavored track that flows from one meter to another and back throughout the recording, primarily using Billy Higgins' wonderful shifting rhythms to delineate the middle eastern part from the conventional jazz part. It's based on a tone row experiment which allows the jazzman to select his own notes for his general improvisational arc, rather than use conventional chord changes. Shorter and Byrd take to this concept very well and produce adventuous, enjoyable solos, along with Herbie Hancock's inspired solo. "Night Flower" is a drop-dead beautiful ballad with Byrd demonstrating the beauty of his tone, delayed vibrato, and musical ideas, with great support by Hancock. "Pentecostal Feelin' " is the almost obligatory gospel/funk groove song that populated many Blue Note albums, in the tradition of Silver's "Jody Grind" and Morgan's "Sidewinder" and all parties produce nice, forceful and funky solos. "French Spice" is a jazz ballet piece with drama and sizzle based on declaratory statements coming from the head, the arrangement, and the solos: one of my favorites from this LP that got into my head (along with "Nai, Nai" and "Free Form") and have stayed there for decades. "Three Wishes" is a very nice addition to the original lineup of tunes.

The 'Piece D'Resistance' for me is "Nai, Nai" with all participants producing their best solos of the date. In partricular, Donald Byrd gets off a great multi-noted solo with flurries to amp up the intensity. Shorter produces a beauty of a solo of 'relaxed intensity' as he states his case for solo honors. Note the entry of Shorter and Hancock into each solo following Byrd: very well thought out and executed hand-offs from soloist to soloist. All in all, a really wonderful recording from end to end that will produce great emotions and stoke memories far into the future. Five "Classic Blue Note" stars!

(NOTE: As I've mentioned before, you can't go wrong with a Blue Note Records set from the 1960's, especially because of Alfred Lion, Rudy Van Gelder, and a stable of some of the best jazz musicians around during that period. Multiple takes of each song were legendary and that's what is responsible for the greatness of the Blue Note products that finally made the final cut on each album from the 1960s. Remember Miles Davis' accidentally-recorded concerned question following a take of "One for Daddy'O" from the recording "Something Else": "Is that what you wanted, Alfred?". Indeed! Donald Byrd was on the "A" list in those days and this is one of his best recordings from that period.)

As the story goes Herbie Hancock entered the 'room' the big leagues through Donald Bryd.He knew of Herbie when he was going to college(U.of Chicago?),and they needed a fill in,in Chicago one night,and the rest is history.Donald has four originals,and Herbie contributes two of his own.
This is classic stuff. With Herbie,Butch Warren,and the 'house'blue note
regular Billy Higgins,and Shorter and Bryd. featuring!Higgins is on fire,
poppin. There is a nice balance throughout the set.Byrd plays suberbly on
Herbie Hancock's 'Night Flower'.On 'French Spice'Wayne puts down one of the finest solos I can think of during his tenure at Blue Note.And 'NAI NAI'a tune written by Byrd you should reserve for when you want to pick your spirits up.Yeh,life is good!All this and more welcome you in the room for some vintage music.Enjoy folks

When a jazz fan hears the words "Free Form," he/she immediately thinks of avant-garde experimentations. Well the music on this album by Donald Byrd is not representative of the title, with one (mediocre) exception. Instead, this is a pretty typical early 60s Blue Note effort. Byrd is joined on the frontline by Wayne Shorter, who's in fantastic form and his contribution is a significant reason for the album's success. "Free Form"'s rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins also recorded Herbie's debut "Takin' Off," and Warren and Higgins were a potent combination with Sonny Clark on numerous Blue Note classics. The album's best tracks are "Pentacostal Feelin'," a soul jazz number with a gospel twist, and "French Spice," a classic Blue Note post-bop groove. The album's disappointment is the title track, and its shortcomings are the reason "Free Form" only gets four stars. If this poor avant-garde effort was Byrd's best foot forward into the outward bound, then I see why he went the funk route as his career evolved. The song "Free Form" is boring, repetitive and poorly conceived, from Hancock's tinkling piano lines to Higgins' clanky cowbell. I generally ignore this song, and program around it, when listening to this CD. Since the excellent "Three Wishes" is included on this CD as a bonus track, I like to think of it as "Free Form's" replacement. Despite the failings of the title track, "Free Form" overall is quite enjoyable, and until "Royal Flush" is re-released, it is one of his best efforts available.

There is nothing wrong with Free Form--a solid album by the usually phonomonal Donald Byrd.

Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter back Byrd here, and a lot of the music is not far from the inventive hard bop both were doing with Miles Davis. Hancock uses an electric panio, a move even far more conservative players made in 1969, as rock began to truely permiate jazz. There is also some freedom in the soloing.

But Free Form does not contain the invention of A New PerspectiveorBlack Byrd. It is good hard bop, not the leap forward the name of the album implies.

When a jazz fan hears the words "Free Form," he/she immediately thinks of avant-garde experimentations. Well the music on this album by Donald Byrd is not representative of the title, with one (mediocre) exception. Instead, this is a pretty typical early 60s Blue Note effort. Byrd is joined on the frontline by Wayne Shorter, who's in fantastic form and his contribution is a significant reason for the album's success. "Free Form"'s rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins also recorded Herbie's debut "Takin' Off," and Warren and Higgins were a potent combination with Sonny Clark and Dexter Gordon on numerous Blue Note classics. The album's best tracks are "Pentacostal Feelin'," a soul jazz number with a gospel twist, and "French Spice," a classic Blue Note post-bop groove. The album's disappointment is the title track, and its shortcomings are the reason "Free Form" only gets four stars. If this poor avant-garde effort was Byrd's best foot forward into the outward bound, then I see why he went the funk route as his career evolved. The song "Free Form" is boring, repetitive and poorly conceived, from Hancock's tinkling piano lines to Higgins' clanky cowbell. I generally ignore this song, and program around it, when listening to this CD. Since the excellent "Three Wishes" is included on this CD as a bonus track, I like to think of it as "Free Form's" replacement. Despite the failings of the title track, "Free Form" overall is quite enjoyable, and until "Royal Flush" is re-released, it is one of Byrd's best efforts available.