Grant Green & Donald Byrd - His Majesty King Funk & Up With Donald Byrd 1995

This single Verve CD reissues the complete contents of two unrelated LPs: Grant Green's His Majesty King Funk (great title) and Up with Donald Byrd. Unfortunately, the music overall is not as rewarding as Green and Byrd's work of the period for Blue Note. Green is OK with a quintet that includes tenor saxophonist Harold Vick and organist Larry Young, but the material (mainly fairly simple funk riffs) is disappointing. Trumpeter Donald Byrd has a potentially strong group with both Jimmy Heath andStanley Turrentine on tenors along with pianist Herbie Hancock and guitarist Kenny Burrell. However, the three- or four-voice Donald Byrd Singers and the arrangements by Claus Ogermanweigh down the date. Each album watered down its music to an extent in hopes of gaining commercial success, but neither really caught on. The results are interesting but somewhat forgettable. AMG.

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