Customer Reviews

Red Clay

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was recorded in January of 1970. Many jazz musicians had been feeling the pressures of rock's popularity. Freddie Hubbard had occasionally experimented as early as 1966 with rock (or soul) rhythms. "Red Clay" was his first album for CTI, but it's not like his other, rock-oriented output for the label. The title cut is the only original-album tune with a rock beat. But even then, Lenny White contributes interesting stuff with quality, real-jazz interaction. Other than the organ on "Delphia," a 6/8-swing tune, Herbie Hancock plays electric piano throughout. Joe Henderson stays more in the background on those first two cuts, but the band stretches out and swings wonderfully on "Suite Sioux" and "The Intrepid Fox." Joe's solos--as usual--balance perfectly between "in" and "out." Freddie soars in typical fashion; often, it's of the can't-believe-yer-ears nature.

This music--largely because of Herbie's light touch--has an airy lilt to it: a fresh, liberated feel. The electric piano (that classic Rhodes sound) is part of it, as is Ron Carter's heady, understated bass. "Cold Turkey" (a bonus cut) gets an imaginative, and yes, groovy treatment. It's hard to sit still to it. Another bonus cut, an alternate take of "Red Clay," is added this time around, but if you already own the previous CD incarnation, I don't think you need to buy this--unless you strive for completeness. Great music, folks. This wonderful album gets my unqualified recommendation, and should please both hard-core jazz fans and those who just dabble in it.
Cheers,
Murray

Freddie Hubbard's Red Clay starts off arguably the finest stretch of trumpeter's career. The album hints at jazz-rock fusion that would take over the 1970's, but still is strongly rooted in hard bop. The title track is a beautiful piece of music with Mr. Hubbard and saxophonist Joe Henderson perfectly melding their instruments together over the top of a slithering electric piano riff from Herbie Hancock. "The Intrepid Fox" is another classic with Mr. Hancock driving the song with some superb piano work and drummer Lenny White providing a sturdy backbeat. There is also a strong funk sound throughout the album and that is a sound Mr. Hubbard would move more towards as the decade progressed.

Some records epitomize cool, while others help define it. "Red Clay" falls into both categories, but more so the latter. Freddie Hubbard's 1970 recording for CTI records is an incredible melange of progressive jazz, old-school soul, and a dash of blues. Like many of his peers, Hubbard's taste leaned more towards raw funk, and he adopted a "fusion" sound that was apparently very popular in that era. Although the music and production here somewhat reveals its era, it's still very much fresh and relevant. Freddie bursts into a passionate solo at the opening of the title track, before it develops into a smooth and confident instrumental, replete with a kickin' bassline from Ron Carter, and a keyboard solo from Herbie Hancock. "Suite Sioux" is a more traditional bop piece that has Hubbard and saxophonist Joe Henderson in solid form, and we also get a bold re-working of John Lennon's "Cold Turkey." But the disc's peak is saved for last: the bonus track which is an alternate version of the title cut. Performed live, this version is loose, less constructed, and more free-flowing than the original studio recording. For any lover of jazz with a progressive edge, "Red Clay" should be a no-brainer of a purchase.

Don't get me wrong. I really can't complain about Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay," except that the mix is lousy. The drums and bass are very soft and only out the left speaker, while the sax, trumpet, and keyboards are much louder and in stereo.

Still, I'm not writing this review on the mix job, am I? I'm evaluating the performances, and they are truly superb.

Freddie Hubbard is probably my second favorite jazz trumpet player (Miles Davis being the first), and his improvising style is so wondrous. Unlike most trumpet soloists, Hubbard solos like a saxophonist in that his improvisations are is more "mind-bending" than your average brass solo. His technique and musicality are both phenomenal. The same holds true for Joe Henderson, whose tenor soars and shimmers in this recording. The rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Lenny White is equally amazing.

What "Red Clay" really deserves is a fresh mix, and a re-release. Music this great deserves to be heard.

I already had the CD release from Epic Legacy in 2002 and bought the new 2010 CTI release recently. The new release definitely has the better mastering - on the first track "Red Clay" for example, the Epic Legacy CD is fairly shrill on Hubbard's trumpet and the soundstage is also off - not much sense of "air" in the recording venue, sort of like trapped acoustics (leading to a case of apparent sound-wave reflections, like bathroom- or tunnel-type acoustics). The 2010 CTI CD smoothens out the trumpet sound along with the other instruments for a more realistic mid-range balance, with more natural recording studio-type acoustics too. You could say the new release has a fuller mid-range and deeper bass throughout. I'd say the main improvements that the new mastering brings are in the frequency spectrum balance and imaging/soundstage - definitely a more tight-knit feel to the jazz group, like the musicians are closer to each other and not as spread out. Hubbard's trumpet in particular is typically front and center, while it's more distant on the 2002 CD.

The Epic Legacy 2002 release wasn't brickwalled (as in, dynamic range compression) and thankfully the new one isn't either (checked it on my PC with Audacity after ripping it). It is a bit louder overall though, but not too obviously compressed.

IMO anyone who was unhappy with the mastering of the 2002 release should get the new CD, and I definitely recommend it. It makes the whole album sound better.

This is a really enjoyable album. Unlike some albums that are overproduced, this has a raw volatile quality to it that captures the spontaneity and genius of the musicians involved. The bonus track, a live version of red clay, is really awesome. This is one of the best Jazz albums I've come across so far. It has a strong funky edge that keeps sneaking into things without overpowering the jazz feel. This album is clearly underrated in some jazz CD guides, but Freddie Hubbard reportedly considers it his best.

Put simply, "Red Clay" has top-notch players playing top-notch songs. Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Lenny White play on the studio cuts, and the live version of Red Clay includes George Benson, Stanley Turrentine, and Billy Cobham. "Red Clay" is rightly regarded as a classic song, and the others all swing as well. Like other ECM albums from the era, you can hear the faintest glimmers of smoothness, but that's only manifested here as good production values and a soulful feel to the rhythm. Make no mistake, this is great jazz.

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.

To put it simply, you've got some of the best jazz musicians in the world playing on this album. You heard me, every musician on this album is amazing. The rythmic and melodic ideas of all the players on Red Clay are refreshing and have been major influences in my playing style for trumpet, piano, and drums. I could go on to analyze the style of every player in depth, but the fact is that this CD is well worth your money. I've been listening to it on and off for a few years now and I only appreciate it more the longer I listen to it.

Let me tell you something.

I put this record on last night when I was finally shutting down and going to sleep. "Red Clay" was definitely already a favorite of mine, but here is what occurred... As the title track started, I was listening intently - waiting excitedly for that portentous bassline to kick in. Low and behold, it did, as it always does, along with the combination of the rest of the band that is somehow permanently capable of leaving me breathless. But not breathless in the limited sense that we tend to associate with music or art or video - I mean truly spirited away, on a sonic journey to which one is forced to pay full attention to. By the song's close, I realize that I have barely moved a muscle in 12 minutes. I am literally clenching my blankets tight. I notice my face has involuntarily been wrought with expression for some time now. Man this is good.

Taking this into consideration, I try to loosen up so I can get back to falling asleep. But after the beautifully soulful "Delphia" I am again taken by the sheer perfection of "Suite Sioux". I am telling you - as with the rest of the album - there is not a note out of place. I probably fall asleep sometime during "The Intrepid Fox," which is also one of the most lively pieces on the album. The next morning though, I've got some time to sleep in, so staying in bed, I start the bonus track "Cold Turkey," leading into the final unreleased live version of "Red Clay". I am drifting in and out of some sort of sleep state, but at a point during the jam that makes up the meat of that song, I am shaken to full consciousness by the awe-inspiring power that is being emitted from my speakers. Unbelievably, this version, (recorded 6 months later at Southgate Palace with mostly different personnel) is actually BETTER than the original. This time without Herbie on the Rhodes, but adding Benson, Airto, and Cobham to tear through the rhythm section, there is so much energy released during this 18-minute volcanic eruption, so much pure joy - it is as if these cats are having more fun than they've ever had. It almost sounds as if they're certain they will never have fun again.

This is it.

This is the reason we are all here.

Then, abruptly, that part right before 15 minutes rolls around, where we can hear the crowd going absolutely NUTS - and it is at this moment that I nearly shed a tear. And I'm not really sure why. Is it that this stuff is too faultlessly majestic for human consumption? Or am I just a hopeless, romantic nerd for music?

Whatever it is, I can't be the only one to feel it. So please, I implore you, get your hands on this. It's unfortunate they've never released the last two tracks in a physical format, because they are truly indispensable. So get them however you can, hearing all six tracks together is worth any amount of gold.

If you like soulful jazz, especially fusion, don't keep living your life without this record. If you're doing it right, this album should shock your soul.