BLP 4196

Freddie Hubbard - Blue Spirits

Released - February 1967

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 19, 1965
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Kiane Zawadi, euphonium; James Spaulding, alto sax, flute; Joe Henderson, tenor sax; Harold Mabern, piano; Larry Ridley, bass; Clifford Jarvis, drums; Big Black, congas.

1525 tk.24 Soul Surge
1526 tk.26 Cunga Black

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 26, 1965 Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Kiane Zawadi, euphonium; James Spaulding, alto sax, flute; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; McCoy Tyner, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Pete La Roca, drums.

1527 tk.3 Jodo
1528 tk.11 Blue Spirits
1529 tk.15 Outer Forces

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Soul Surge	Freddie Hubbard	February 19 1965
Blue Spirits	Freddie Hubbard	February 26 1965
Side Two
Outer Forces	Freddie Hubbard	February 26 1965
Cunga Black	Freddie Hubbard	February 19 1965
Jodo	Freddie Hubbard	February 26 1965

Liner Notes

AS has been evident for some time, Freddie Hubbard is as committed to growth as a composer as he is involved with further expansion as a trumpeter. His persistent development in both roles is clear in this album which, incidentally, marks the first time Freddie has written for four horns.

Technically, these performances reveal Hubbard’s concern with getting, as he told a British critic, “a wider play of colors and of the emotions that those colors reveal.” Emotionally, the album represents Freddie’s reactions to “all the things that are happening today — the civil rights movement and the thrust for dignity beyond civil rights. It’s a spiritual album. I don’t mean that in a religious sense,” Freddie explains, “but in the sense that I consider music to be a spiritual experience because you can get at your deepest feelings in music.”

The opening Soul Surge — all the compositions are by Hubbard — is a blues in 7/4. “But it doesn’t really sound like 7/4,” Freddie points out. “I didn’t want the time to sound awkward and so we tried to get the feeling of 7/4 in a 4/4 vein.” Worth noting ¡s the added body that Big Black on conga gives to the rhythm section. Originally from Jamaica, Big Black has become a familiar presence on the New York jazz scene, appearing often with Randy Weston and also with Freddie. “The thing about Big Black’ says Freddie, “is that he sounds like a drummer. He knows enough about rhythm patterns so that he can set up a pattern, swing it, go out of it, and yet always know where that first pattern is.”

Freddie’s own full-toned, authoritative playing recalls the description of the Hubbard trumpet by British musician-club owner Ronnie Scott as “those supremely confident, gloriously true sounds.” Also directly powerful is alto saxophonist James Spaulding, who has been a regular member of Freddie’s combo for about a year and a half. Like Freddie, Spaulding is originally from Indianapolis. “Spaulding,” Freddie underlines, “is a free player. He knows chords but he’s not constricted by them. And he’s a first-rate musician besides.”

The increasingly impressve Joe Henderson on tenor is admired by Freddie for his big sound and the inventiveness that, says Freddie, “is making me regard him as just about my favorite tenor.” Pianist Harold Mabern, who usually works with Wes Montgomery but has also played with Hubbard’s combo, is cited by Freddie for his ability to “stay right in a groove” and for his fulness of sound. “Harold,” Freddie notes; “has huge hands and that means he has a larger reach than most pianists. Accordingly, he can get chords that most other guys can’t get.”

The title tune, Blue Spirits, is called that because, Freddie says, “the music sounded dark.” Beginning with a prayer-type section, the piece moves into an interlude which sets up the flute solo. “That flute melody,” observes composer Hubbard “reminded me of the Near East. Maybe I heard something like it in one of my travels.” When the flute drops out, the three horns play triads (G. into F into B flat minor into E flat) against an E minor vamp. On the bridge, triads are again played against a vamp — this time in A minor. “This is part,” Freddie points out, “of my attempt to find new ways of moving colors against the chords.” The solos are crisply constructed with disciplined passion. Notable is the plangent incisiveness of McCoy Tyner.

Outer Forces, Freddie grins in recollection, got its title “because that first chord was really out! It’s technically weird to play against creatively, but the guys did it.” In structure, the piece is in 16-16-8-16. The theme is immediately arresting and, as in the other pieces in this set, the ensemble passages are played with a rare combination of precision and relaxation. The performance merits several listenings for Pete La Roca’s drums alone. La Roca, as Freddie asserts, “was one of the first drummers to start that looser, freer type of swinging. We became pretty tight musically when we had a band in Brooklyn in 1959 with Wayne Shorter, Tommy Williams and Pete, and I’ve been intrigued by his drumming ever since.” On the basis of James Spaulding’s playing here, and on the other numbers, ¡t seems clear to me that he is,a young jazzman whose future in music should be remarkably provocative and stimulating.

Cunga Black is referred to by Freddie as a “groove tune,” but, he adds, “I tried to get that dark sound in it which characterizes much of the rest of the music in the album.” Here too you can hear in the writing how imaginatively Hubbard moves variegated colors against the chords. The drummer on this tune and on Soul Surge is Clifford Jarvis, who has worked with, among others, Barry Harris, Cedar Walton and Freddie. “Clifford,” says Freddie, “has all the technical facility and has taste besides.” As for bassist Larry Ridley, frequently heard with Roy Haynes’ unit, Freddie notes that “Larry isn’t limited to walking 4/4 all the time. He can break the time up and still swing.”

The final Jodo ¡s a Japanese word. It means “pure land,” and Freddie got the concept of the song while travelling in Japan. “They grow vegetables outdoors in the winter there,” says Freddie. “And that doesn’t happen in America so I figured the Japanese land must be real pure.” In this piece also, Hubbard as composer succeeds in creating subtly shifting waves of color. The bassist on Jodo (as well as on Blue Spirits and Outer Forces) is Bob Cranshaw who is known from his work with the MJT + 3 Sonny Rollins, Billy Taylor, and increasingly, as a flexible studio musician in New York. “Bob,” Freddie emphasizes, “has a big sound and what I call the Chicago feeling — bluesy and deep into the time.”

On euphonium is Kiane Zawadi, formerly known as Bernard McKinney, one of the many resourceful young jazzmen originally from Detroit. Freddie selected Zawadi because he was thereby able to get fuller colorations in the ensemble passages, the euphonium being bigger and rounder in sound than the trombone. In Jodo, Blue Spirits and Outer Forces is the durable Hank Mobley who, Freddie proclaims, ‘Is still one of the most important tenormen on the scene.”

The album is yet another distinctive addition to Freddie Hubbard’s substantial body of recorded work. It not only illuminates his evolution as a writer but also focuses on the formidable consistency of his playing. Freddie has long since revealed unusual technical skill. “Some musicians,” he told the British Melody Maker, “don’t seem to care about technique but to me there’s more in playing trumpet than just working to your own capacity. I want to keep developing, and I want to be able to play the whole range of the horn any time I feel like it.” And, in addition to that sureness of technique, there are commanding warmth and imagination in Freddie’s playing.

This combination of technical knowledge and personal force has been detailed by Ronnie Scott who observed Freddie closely when the latter played Scott’s club in London. Hubbard, Scott wrote, “revealed himself as not only a superb instrumentalist but as a thoroughly schooled musician and composer. He plays the piano too, more than just competently and his compositions are challenging and intensely original.”

For the future, Freddie hopes to be able to keep his combo going and perhaps add Big Black to it. “And basically,” Freddie continues, “I want to keep developing my own sound as a player and a writer. I might even write for a big band yet.” Hubbard already — as you can hear in this collection — has singularity of sound; but since he is a ceaseless setter of challenges for himself, one can confidently expect that his next albums — like all under his name that have gone before — will reveal a new dimension ¡n his playing and writing. What counts, of course, is, that they stand up after repeated listenings, as will this.

—NAT HENTOFF

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT BLUE SPIRITS

While often overlooked, Blue Spirits is one of the greatest albums in Freddie Hubbard's voluminous discography. It caught Hubbard's trumpet playing at one of its peak moments, showcased his talent as both composer and arranger, and is arguably the best recorded example of the Hubbard/James Spaulding partnership.

Hubbard had been well schooled in working as part of a three-horn front line, from his sideman days with J. J. Johnson's sextet (where Hubbard did not contribute writing) and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (where he did). The use of a fourth horn for this album, coupled with an exclusive focus on Hubbard's compositions, really threw light on the trumpeter's command of harmony, which is such a critical part of both his improvising and writing personality. Surprisingly, the added instruments did not take away from the Hubbard/Spaulding affinity that was central to the developing identity of Hubbard the bandleader. The arrangements here are clearly built around the blend the two achieved, with Spaulding often given a primary role in stating Hubbard's themes.

The original program for Blue Spirits was recorded in two sessions held a week apart with variations in personnel that may have resulted from scheduling conflicts. Session one employed an octet with Spaulding, Harold Mabern, and Larry Ridley from Hubbard's working quintet (as heard two months later on the live The Night of the Cookers) plus Big Black (also heard on Cookers), Hubbard recording session veterans Clifford Jarvis and Kiane Zawadi, and Joe Henderson. While they would go on to work together frequently, this was only the second studio encounter of Hubbard and Henderson (the first, under Andrew Hill's leadership a week earlier, went unreleased for a decade). After an attempt at "Outer Forces" that remains unissued, the octet turned to the program's two blues pieces, the 7/4 "Soul Surge" and "Cunga Black." "Soul" is one of the better pieces in Blue Note's "Sidewinder" lineage, with great use of backgrounds by the horns and (during Big Black's solo) the rhythm section, and outstanding contributions by the saxophonists. "Cunga" is the blues "Latinized" and harmonically transformed in a classic example of the Hubbard style. Spaulding solos on flute here, and Henderson begins with his version of pecking, en route to one of his Eastern trances. (For the record, Big Black is not from Jamaica, but rather a U.S. native who picked up much of his percussive knowledge in the Bahamas.)

A week later, Hank Mobley, McCoy Tyner, Bob Cranshaw, and Pete LaRoca had replaced Henderson, Mabern, Ridley, and Jarvis, respectively, and there was no added percussionist. The introductions on "Outer Forces" and the title track only enhance the already spectacular character of the writing on two of Hubbard's most indelible creations. "Forces" is a riveting harmonic course that sounds like it is based on "Love for Sale" with a funhouse foreshortening of the bridge, and captures Spaulding's alto at some explosive midpoint between Lou Donaldson and Eric Dolphy that made him such an invaluable role player on so many Blue Note sessions. Spaulding's flute has the lead and solos on the beautiful waltz "Blue Spirits," where Hubbard (who is brilliant throughout this session) outdoes himself, both in his opening solo and on the coda where he first meditates and then softly snarls his way to the fade. Hank Mobley's solo over the Tyner-driven rhythm section is also choice, and reminds this listener of Stan Getz with Chick Corea on the Sweet Rain album that Getz recorded two years later. "Jodo," which LaRoca drives with his intense stop-time figures in the theme, was reprised on Cookers, but is given its definitive reading here.

The two 1966 bonus tracks bring Henderson back. The performances are not as successful, but they indicate the greater range of musical options that leading post-bop musicians had begun to contemplate in the ensuing year. "The Melting Pot" is tropical and lyrical, with hints of a Horace Silver influence in the writing. Hubbard reprised the piece in 1987 when he cut Life Flight for the reactivated Blue Note. "True Colors" employs bassoon and celeste in anticipation of the free-form fusion Miles Davis would make on Bitches Brew nearly four years later. The performance is too diffuse, but it does indicate the stylistic range that was the New York norm for jazz's visionary players of the period. Note Hancock's contributions, which can sound like Andrew Hill (behind Henderson on "Melting Pot") and Cecil Taylor "unplugged" (on "Colors"), Hubbard would return to "True Colors" on a couple of occasions, most memorably on the 1967 Atlantic album High Blues Pressure that is another rare example of his skill in employing an expanded horn section.

- Bob Blumenthal, 2003