FREDDIE HUBBARD — Straight Life (review)

FREDDIE HUBBARD — Straight Life album cover Album · 1971 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
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.

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