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Although the touring Byrd - Adams quintet was always co-led, Blue Note’s contract was exclusively with Byrd. Thus, all of the records done for the label appeared under Byrd’s name. In early November 1960 after Blue Note recorded the two-volume Live at the Half Note, the group’s fifth and sixth LP, the Byrd–Adams Quintet, in a burst of activity, recorded four more dates in New York, partly because a lapse in Byrd’s Blue Note contract allowed them to record for other labels. The first of these projects was Motor City Scene, done for Bethlehem sometime between the 14th and 20th of November 1960. Led by Adams, as he had first done on Ten to Four at the Five Spot he grabbed his homies from Detroit - in this case Byrd, Burrell, Flanagan, Chambers, and Hayes - returning to the favored all-Detroit formula. Still without a new Blue Note contract, between January 25th and February 5th, 1961, the quintet also recorded Out of This World for Warwick, Herbie Hancock’s very first record session. Co-led by Byrd and Adams, it featured the working group, though drummer Jimmy Cobb filled in for Lex Humphries. All told, during the four-year stretch the Donald Byrd – Pepper Adams Quintet recorded ten dates - six studio albums, one sampler, and three live LPs - assuring their place as one of the great jazz groups of its time. The band launched the career of Herbie Hancock, and it gave Byrd and, to a much lesser extent, Pearson, or Adams and Hancock, a forum to write original compositions. 70% of their originals, in fact, were written by Byrd or, in the case of “Each Time I Think of You,” co-written by he and Pearson. Nine others were written by Pearson, Hancock, and Walter Davis Jr., the three pianists that recorded with the band. Although Adams wrote “Philson” and “Libeccio” for Motor City Scene, it’s not known if either were ever performed again by the working quintet. (more)
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Donald Byrd - Pepper Adams Quintet