FREDDIE
HUBBARD
Blue Spirits
Blue Note/Van Gelder Editions
Freddie Hubbard’s Blue Spirits
album is culled from sessions recorded in February 1965
and in March of the following year. The 1966 tracks are
bonus tracks added to this Van Gelder Edition release, and
feature Hubbard with Joe Henderson and Hosea Taylor on saxes
and a rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Reggie Workman,
and Elvin Jones.
The other sessions have a couple of different
lineups as well, but both feature Hubbard not only as a
trumpet player, but as a composer and arranger, with one
of his strongest collaborators, alto saxophonist James Spaulding.
The first group leads off the album with “Soul Surge,”
a very funky blues cut that features Hubbard and Spaulding
along with Joe Henderson and euphonium player Kiane Zawadi
as the front line while Harold Mabern, Larry Ridley, Clifford
Jarvis, and conga player Big Black hold down the rhythm.
Mabern’s funky, gospel-tinged piano punctuation is
especially noticeable. The same group also cut the fourth
track, “Cunga Black,” a Latin blues number.
The second group heard here recorded their
session a week after the above tunes were cut. Here Hubbard
and Spaulding are joined by venerable tenor man Hank Mobley,
Zawadi again, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass,
and Pete La Roca at the drums. They provide a somewhat softer,
more subtle focus on the tunes “Blue Spirits”,
“Outer Forces,” and the closer, “Jodo.”
“Blue Spirits” is a gorgeous tune, and Hubbard’s
intro is up there with the time’s top arrangers. Spaulding
offers a mood-setting flute solo, and Hubbard plays as well
as he ever has, able to move from a relaxed, lyrical vibe
to a more frenetic pace. “Outer Forces” is a
sheer delight, from its attention-getting intro right through
its bop funhouse of chord changes. Hubbard demonstrates
his technique a bit here, but it’s so musical you
almost don’t realize how hot he’s playing. Yeah,
the guy really was Miles’ heir in many ways. “Jodo”
really moves full speed ahead as Henderson starts to get
somewhat ‘outside’ in his solo, and though pianist
McCoy Tyner brings it back ‘inside’ with some
distinct blues inflections over a trademark modal left hand
deep in the piano’s bottom registers, the intensity
never flags.
The bonus tracks are not quite as successful
as the sessions that formed the original Blue Spirits album,
but they are welcome additions. “The Melting Pot”
has a nice breezy Latin by way of New Orleans or the Caribbean
feel that is definitely very cool. Hancock’s denser
harmonic configurations push Hubbard and Henderson much
harder than Mabern or even Tyner had been able to do, and
Jones provides a lot of rhythmic motivation even while taking
a fairly low-key approach. “True Colors” starts
with a brief Jones solo intro before the horn line, with
Hosea Taylor on bassoon kicks in. Jones kicks in with some
brush work that just manages to hold the whole thing together.
Hancock is here on celeste, a weird little keyboard that
sounds rather like the Adams Family’s harpsichord.
Miles had either Hancock or Chick Corea play one on a session
that remained unreleased until many years later. Like this
performance, it was not wholly successful. In fact, while
there are rewarding moments (Hubbard’s solo, for instance)
, much of the other material becomes so annoying that it’s
difficult to imagine revisiting this one any time soon.
Bonus material not withstanding, Blue
Spirits is actually one of the top several Freddie
Hubbard recordings out there, especially if you listen not
just to the soloists, but to the ensemble as well.
