Freddie Hubbard - Red Clay
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CD Details
Artist: Freddie HubbardEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2002-06-18
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Red Clay
- Delphia
- Suite Sioux
- The Intrepid Fox
- Cold Turkey
- Red Clay (Alternate Version) (Bonus Track)
Music reviews of Red Clay
Music Review: Half-great early fusion (3.5 stars)
Rating: 4 Stars
Freddie Hubbard might be my favorite trumpeter; indeed, he's one of my favorite soloists in any genre of music. Consistently, he encompasses the sensitivity (but not the sentimentality) of Miles Davis, the indomitable bravura of Lee Morgan, sometimes even the restlesness, vulnerability and ecstasy of John Coltrane. That being said, he has no essential LP of his own, because he does almost all of what he does best on other people's albums - Coltrane's Ascension; Dolphy's Out to Lunch!; Shorter's Speak No Evil; two peerless Herbie Hancock sessions, Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage.
Most of the cast of those latter two records turns up here, with Ron Carter swooping up and down the fingerboard of a fretless electric bass, and Herbie Hancock contending with the flattened dynamics of a Fender Rhodes electric piano. Neither of them, nor Freddie, are exactly at their very best here, but as their very best is among the greatest jazz ever recorded, I'm more than willing to settle. On drums is the young Lenny White, making an impressive showing en route to Return to Forever.
So, yes, this is basically a fusion record, but it's one of the earliest and least offensive fusion records of all. For one thing, it's earnest: essentially it is a modal jazz record, circa '65, with boxier drumming and electric instruments. It avoids cliche by eschewing phasing effects, Hendrix guitarisms or much by way of Sly; indeed it sounds delightfully not at all like contemporaneous Davis, but rather, it sounds, kinda sorta, like jazz music. Good, old-fashioned blues-based (or modal) jazz music.
The first track is the sole masterwork, perhaps Hubbard's greatest composition, and one of a handful of his greatest performances. The arrangement is pulverizing, with climax after climax - each successive segment wrenches up the tension and fire. Hubbard mostly stays inside, playing a blues scale with lambent conviction, atop wistful chords; but tenorist Joe Henderson goes much farther afield in his solo section, a half-Archie Shepp, half-deluge thing that audibly riles up Freddie.
Next comes "Delphia", an exquisitely pretty if somewhat torpid ballad, with Henderson humming distantly into a flute and Hancock playing some pro forma Hammond organ; the followup, "Suite Sioux" is even less interesting, a frivolous bossa nova thing with another good Henderson solo.
The original LP closes with another excellent extended piece, "The Intrepid Fox", an urgent theme built on a feverish quote from Coltrane's "Cousin Mary". Again, Hubbard sounds strangely conservative, but even when Freddie feels he hasn't got anything to prove, he proves much. Hancock sounds livelier here than otherwise, but in general I am disappointed with his performances on this disc; he might be the greatest jazz pianist who's ever lived, but the electric instrument is not his purview, with his clustered Tyneresque pianisms here the resulting sound is often toylike. (The same goes, to a lesser extent, for Carter, who nonetheless solos ably throughout.)
The bonus tracks are enjoyable, but superfluous. The version of Lennon's "Cold Turkey" is at once seriously funky and way, way out there, with Hubbard's most unhinged playing since the mid-sixties; but Lennon's tune isn't very sturdy. The live version of the title track is good, but a little protracted.
Recommended for fans.
Description of Red Clay
Before Freddie Hubbard signed with CTI Records in 1970, he was already considered one of the most brilliant jazz trumpeters in the world. RED CLAY, his debut album on the label, is an exceptional set of plugged-in hard bop fused with funk - and reportedly the album he considers his best. Joining him on five of the six cuts, is a crack quintet featuring longtime colleagues Joe Henderson and Herbie Hancock, on tenor saxophone and keyboards respectively. The final number, a previously unissued, extended live jam on the title tune, finds Hubbard fronting an all-star septet that includes such fellow CTI stars as George Benson and Stanley Turrentine.Jazz CDs
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