Billboard : 03/30/1959
Three Stars

This is Donald Byrd‘s first waxing as a leader and his first for the label since his trip to Europe last fall. On it the trumpet man shows a maturity and a feeling that indicate real growth as a musician. he drives with his hon on Love Come Back to Me, and turns in a pretty solo on the ballad When Your Love Has Gone. He also comes thru with some attractive work on Paul’s Pal, penned by Sonny Rollins. Will interest many buffs.

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Cashbox : 04/25/1959

On his first date for Blue Note, as a leader, having appeared previously as a sideman on many occasions for the label, the fast rising Byrd has surrounded himself with several highly capable cohorts (Jackie McLean, Pepper Adams, Sam Jones, Art Taylor and Wynton Kelly), and has chosen compositions that make for a well-balanced concert. Added to four Byrd-cleffed numbers are Sonny Rollins‘ Paul’s Pal and the standard, Lover Come Back to Me, all of which showcase the energetic, full-blown Byrd trumpet. Fine example of solid jazz expression.

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Westbury Times
Dick Levy : 07/16/1959

Byrd, Jackie McLean, Pepper Adams, Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones and Art Taylor boil into some dazzling personal sounds here. Byrd’s trumpet is heard instantly in a break neck Lover Come Back to Me. Adams who follows and Byrd’s repeating eruption makes like a four minute mile. Hear Byrd’s hectic exchange with Taylor. Lover Has Gone more subdued is a highly stylized moment for Byrd. Rhythm shine in the low down Sudwest Funk. Byrd’s most memorable effort is in the melodic Paul’s Pal. The title tune and the rampaging Down Tempo are also chock full of stimulating solo work. A very important LP.

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This appears to be one of the rare Blue Notes that doesn’t get a review from Down Beat

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Liner Notes by Joe Goldberg

Inevitably, and perhaps unfortunately, jazz in this country is part of show business. As such, it treads the tightrope of all entertainment, trying to be an artform and a going business proposition at the same time, often succeeding at neither. But since it is a part of show business, existing at its best as a means of expression and at its worst as a means of inducing people to buy expensive drinks, it falls prey to the show business rules.

One of the most pernicious of these rules has to do with publicity. It stands to reason that heroes are not born every minute, or every ten years, but publicity must have heroes, and if none are available, must manufacture them where none exist. Often, a man is built up to be a hero long before he is really due for such acclaim; then, when it turns out that he is not flawless, he is cast aside in favor of this week’s new giant. If he really has the stuff of talent, he can last out both types of treatment (and who can say which is more dangerous?), and quietly, without fanfare, work his way honestly into a position of importance. Once this is done, his status is secure. The most obvious example in recent years is, of course, Frank Sinatra, who came back “bigger and better than ever,” as the publicists say, and today has little to worry about, artistically or financially.

It seems to me that in the realm of jazz, and in not quite so noisy a fashion, Donald Byrd has recently suffered the same fate. Coming out of Detroit a few years ago with some other extremely talented young musicians, he was hailed everywhere as the new great trumpet player, even winning the Downbeat Critic’s New Star Poll in 1957. Now “great” is a word that should be carefully reserved and brought out only at very special times. If Donald Byrd was not truly great at twenty-one or twenty-two, that is not very important. And if the fans who think they own jazz, that it is their own special province, dismissed him when he became too widely known as to be their secret, that is not very important, either. What is important, and what can be judged from this record, is that Donald Byrd is a very good musician, and an honest one.

He has matured since all the fuss was made about him; that much is apparent. At one time, he sounded much like Clifford Brown; he no longer does. He is developing his own voice, and it is a strong one. Nor is he a slavish imitator of fashion. Many young trumpet players, influenced by the obvious stature of Miles Davis, play soft, whispery trumpet – one technique, among many, that is superbly suited to the statements Miles makes, but that might not fare so well for others. Donald Byrd, on this record, plays a wonderfully open horn, more reminiscent of the true trumpet sound than the work of any young musician I have heard in several years. It is, as it should be, a sound that is in keeping with his music rather than with fashion. His is not a slanted, oblique music like Miles’, it is an open, forceful, direct music. In keeping with his sound is the energy that is apparent throughout the record. Donald obviously wants to play and enjoys it – a warm feeling, somewhat rare in this diffident days, that communicates itself instantly to the listener and carries him along.

After several appearances as a sideman for Blue Note, this is Donald’s first date as a leader, and he has chosen men well suited to his musical thought. They possess the same energy and drive that are characteristic of his playing, and make this, through their combined efforts, and essentially cheerful record in an era of angry, slashing music.

Jackie McLean, on alto, has been around much longer than his years would indicate, and at various times, in such groups as George Wallington‘s, could almost be considered to be in partnership with Donald. Pepper Adams shared with Donald the distinctions of being a New Star Poll winner and being from Detroit. Wynton Kelly and Art Taylor have been present on several Blue Note LPs, and Sam Jones, an extremely talented young bass player, was one of the reasons for the success of the Cannonball Adderley-Miles Davis Somethin’ Else LP on Blue Note.

The one standard, Lover Come Back to Me, is taken at the rapid tempo common to jazz performances. Someday, it may be remembered that this was once ballad. But there is every reason for it to be swung this way, as this performance proves.

Paul’s Pal is by Sonny Rollins, and has the easy, slightly sardonic charm of his best compositions. Sonny is worthy to be placed among the finest jazz composers, and Donald deserves credit for both his choice of the tune and his playing of it.

The remaining four tunes are Donald’s own compositions. One of them, When Your Love Has Gone, is in many ways the best example of his abilities on the LP. In these angry days, it is almost as rare to find a young musician who can play a ballad as to find one who can write one. Without ever resorting to the evasive device of doubletiming (which only keeps a ballad from being a ballad) Donald, for the only time on the record without the benefit of the other two horns, gives an extended, emotional, open horn performance.

Two of the other pieces are Sudwest Funk and Down Tempo. The first takes its name from the name of a Southwest German radio network where, no doubt, the concept of funk has also penetrated by now, and is a well-rooted example of today’s idiom. The second is a blues of a quite different nature, a return to the happy, hollering blues of the forties. Both are open, easy performances.

The remaining Donald Byrd composition, the one that gives this album its name, is Off to the Races. It is a rather fascinating, well ordered tune taken at a slower tempo than one might expect from the title. Built around a march-tempo motif, it is brilliantly introduced and concluded by Art Taylor. If it is meant that everyone goes off to the races between the arranged partitions, that much is certainly true.

As the cover indicates, Donald Byrd, after having suffered in a very short time the ins and outs of popular favor (and it is typical of jazz that happenings that take a great amount of time anywhere else happen quickly within its limits), is finally off to the races himself. This record is enough to make that, rather than a wish or an opinion, a fact.