FREDDIE HUBBARD — Straight Life (review)

FREDDIE HUBBARD — Straight Life album cover

Album · 1971 · Fusion

4/5 · 2024-12-18
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.