Steve Wyzard SUNSET SHADOWS

Let's address the elephant in the room right away: Freddie Hubbard's Straight Life album will always live in the shadow of its predecessor, Red Clay. There are those of us who believe this comparison is unfair, despite the two very different albums being recorded only 10 months apart. Yet as ground-breaking as the Red Clay album is, it's Straight Life that remains the far more awe-inspiring session of the two, even with its slightly shorter running time.

Straight Life gives us two long jams with an all-star group, and one classic ballad performed as a trio. As soon as you hear Freddie's trade-offs with Jack DeJohnette that open "Straight Life", you will know you're about to hear something special. The first big solo goes to Joe Henderson (tenor sax): a true 4-minute monster that will erase any doubt on whether he belongs among the all-time greats. Then it's Freddie's turn, before Herbie Hancock (banging away on electric piano), George Benson (guitar), and DeJohnette (drums) are given space to strut their stuff before Hubbard returns to wrap it all up. "Mr. Clean" has Hubbard and Henderson playing the main theme in tandem before and between everyone's solo spaces. This track moves and grooves more deliberately than the previous one, and Benson features more prominently. The album closes with a truly beautiful version of "Here's that Rainy Day". Hubbard and Benson duet before being joined by bassist Ron Carter, a truly memorable finish to a truly classic album (with no lost/missing tracks on subsequent re-issues).

So what's not to like? The critical orthodoxy will insist these songs are not compositions, but simply backdrops for soloing (as if that's a bad thing). Occasionally the musical textures (which also include a very busy percussionist, Richie Landrum) can become cluttered, but with all this firepower, why not use it? It was probably strongly suggested to Freddie that he make another Red Clay, but thankfully he didn't, and the jazz world is better for it. Hubbard's future CTI albums would add strings/horns/woodwinds (without Herbie Hancock), and just never be as downright masterful as Straight Life always will be.

dreadpirateroberts In some ways this is Freddie's hardest hitting album.

On the title track, the more obvious funk from his previous album, 'Red Clay' is stripped back into a hard and post bop workout that barrels along. It's full of blasting solos from both Hubbard and Henderson, with DeJohnette working like a demon on the kit for almost the entire seventeen plus minutes. In 'Straight Life' Hancock is given a long solo on electric piano, before making way for Benson and eventually, a return to the main theme.

'Mr Clean' is next, and it starts off a little more funky but has the same feel as 'Straight Life' with its faster solos and hard hitting playing nearly all round. A gentle middle section that begins around Hancock's solo is brief, then the ante is raised again. While still maintaining an intensity, with a little more in the way of shifts throughout this piece, this is the stand out.

Just trumpet and guitar close the record on 'Here's that Rainy Day' and Hubbard foreshadows his later soloing on follow up 'First Light.' While the song is pleasant enough, it doesn't match similar work on 'First Light' though it is the moment where Benson is most prominent, not always all that present in the mix during the opening two tracks.

One thing to note is just how impressive DeJohnette is across the album, he's a bit of a whirlwind, keeping the beat and working his fills in and around the soloists with great dexterity.

Four stars for me - if you're a Hubbard fan then this album is highly recommended, not just as a step between 'Red Clay' and 'First Light' but as a powerhouse on its own.

FunkFreak75 Enlisting the support of a band of jazz's new guard: the younger up-and-comers who'd paid their dues in their 20s throughout the 1960s and were now ready to break out--to prove themselves as leaders and adventurists. Here Freddie and crew test the waters of the Latin-infused fusion of jazz with some rock and pop sounds à la Miles Davis, Tony Williams, and John McLaughlin. While the boys never get too far out of their hard bop and post-bop comfort zones, they do stretch themselves from time to time with unusually aggressive dynamics (for them) and the use of some electronic instruments and effects (particularly on Herbie Hancock's electric piano and George Benson's electric guitar). To my ears, their "busting out" is more akin to the musical explorations of the past five years done by the Don Ellis Orchestra--more like wearing black sunglasses with their standard, nondescript black suits and thin black ties.

The album was recorded in November 16 of 1970, released in January of the new year by CTI Records.

A. "Straight Life" (17:30) fast and dynamic with lots of energy being expressed, even in the individual solos, each taken in its proper turn, of course. Great virtuosity on display but played so tightly! (30.75/35)

B1. "Mr. Clean" (13:30) has a mod, late-Sixties party feel to it, played loose and lax--like they're really letting their hair down. Everybody is playing loose and kind of in their own melody lines, all at the same time, which is/was really unusual for this time. So weird to hear Ron Carter and Jack DeJohnette playing as if they couldn't care less about holding down the rhythm section, hearing George Benson and Freddie (and, to a lesser degree, Herbie) playing so loosely over, beside, and within each other's tracks. (Herbie gets on board with the fierce independent thing somewhere around the fourth or fifth minute.) This is awesome stuff! At the end of the seventh minute everybody dials it down a bit so that Herbie's electric piano solo can be heard. Respect! It does not, however, stop Richie Landrum, Ron Carter, or Jack DeJohnette from throwing Herbie a little shade. Could this solo been one of Eumir Deodato's big inspirations for his career in Jazz-Rock Fusion? George B. gets the next solo respect--for the eleventh minute. (Do I hear a little funk coming from the rhythm section?) Great song--especially for being so early in the J-R Fuse thing. (23/25)

B2. "Here's That Rainy Day" (5:10) solo plaintive trumpet--as Freddie does so well--opens this one before George Benson's chord support joins in and then, in the second minute, Ron Carter's bass. Despite the occasional sound of Jack's snare coils vibrating, the trio are the only ones represented on this one. (8.75/10)

Total Time: 36:24

B+/4.5 stars; though registering as a near-masterpiece to me, the critic looking for Jazz-Rock Fusion, I can see how this album could be appreciated by true jazz aficionado.

darkshade One of the best jazz albums of the 1970s.

The lineup alone should tell you this is a classic album. Some excellent performances from everyone. The music is mostly post-bop with hints of jazz-fusion from Herbie Hancock's electric piano and George Benson's electric guitar. Big, long improvisations is the name of the game, as was somewhat common among many of the great jazz artists around this time in the early 1970s.

Freddie Hubbard sounds absolutely inspired on this record, blowing some wild and furious horn lines on top of the funky rhythms, as well as Hancock, as usual.

The cover of the Statue of Liberty gives this album an identity of that with New York City, and this album does bring to mind being there, as it has that vibe, not unlike some of Miles Davis' albums. Speaking of Miles, any fan of his during his mid-late 60s era, as well as the 70s era, should stop reading this review and get this album. In fact, many of Freddie's albums feature Miles alumni, so you can't go wrong with Freddie Hubbard.

If you're looking for jazz from the 1970s that's more jazz than fusion, this album is a great place to start.

Sean Trane As he had done with the previous Red Clay, Hubbard chose to pursue in the JR/F mould, using a very similar formation centred around Herbie, Ron, and Joe Henderson, but replacing Lenny with DeJohnette and two percussion players. And indeed the FH band picks up where it left off in the previous Red Clay album and SL is very much a JR/F affair. SL features another red-looking artwork, that kind of hints at the previous album’s continuity, but the boppy nature of the music of RC is nearly totally absorbed in the funk-rock of the present.

Just three track on this red-hot fusion thing, with the sidelong title track occupying the whole A-side. Indeed, with this 17-mins+ energy-filled monster track, we’re definitely up Bitches Brew (despite the liner notes) or Ethiopian Knight’s alley, if you’ll notice that Benson’s Montgomery influences replaces McL’s fiery pyro-techniques. On the flipside, Mr Clean’s 12 minutes of insane JR/F will surely cleanse your tripe’s inner from stuffy and dusty old bop stuff. Hubbard’s trumpet has the same kind of bite as Donald Byrd in the equivalent album, but none chose to add pedal effects that made Miles’ sound so unique. We’re again closer to BB than we are to Mwandishi or Weather Report’s early albums here. The shorter Rainy Day track is a relatively out-of-context slow sleepy middle-of-the-night jazz piece, which doesn’t do the album a favour.

While SL is typically the kind of fusion-y album I love, I must put a bit of a damper, because of the general short duration, but also some of the aimless soloing around. I can’t help but feeling that albums such as SL or Byrd’s Ethiopian Knights should have at least one more 7 or 8 minutes track aside, not just for the sake of value for money, but in terms of a more complete sonic-capture. Indeed, we’re kind of still hungry after EK or SL, something we’re not after BB, Crossings or Body Electric.