Andrew Cyrille

CD version. Special People is a quartet date led by drummer Andrew Cyrille, recorded in Milan in October 1980 for Soul Note and released in 1981 as SN 1012. The front line pairs trumpeter Ted Daniel, here also on flugelhorn, with tenor saxophonist David S. Ware, and Nick DiGeronimo plays bass. There is no piano, so horns, bass and percussion carry everything. Cyrille wrote three of the five pieces and took the front cover photograph himself; the other two come from Ornette Coleman and John Stubblefield.

The sessions were held at Barigozzi Studios on 21 and 22 October 1980, produced by Giovanni Bonandrini and engineered by Giancarlo Barigozzi, with liner notes by Lee Jeske and a back cover photograph by Gianpiero Gallina. Coleman's A Girl Named Rainbow opens the record at ten minutes, the longest track, followed by Cyrille's High Priest. Fortified Nucleolus, also by the leader, is the shortest piece at about five minutes. Stubblefield's Baby Man comes next, and the title track, Cyrille's again, closes the album at seven minutes. Cyrille is credited on percussion rather than simply drums, and the five pieces add up to about 36 minutes.

Soul Note CD 121012-2, which Discogs lists as a reissue of the 1981 LP SN 1012; the disc carries ℗ and © 1981 Soul Note.