Red Clay

Red Clay Artist: Freddie Hubbard
Label: Sony
Category: Music



Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Format: Original recording remastered
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 696998521629
EAN: 0696998521629
ASIN: B000068D1J


Release Date: 2002-06-18

Related Categories:

General General
Related | Jazz | Styles | Music
General General
Related | Pop | Styles | Music

Listmania:

  1. The Greatest LPs Of All Time (The 2nd 40)
  2. 10 Great Lenny White CD's
  3. my favorite jazz albums
  4. Focus: Trumpet (by Twos, Ones, and....Miles!)
  5. The Best of My Collection (no greatest hits, no soundtracks)
  6. From here to the Eternity...25 master jazz trumpeter
  7. Freddie "Hard" Hubbard
  8. My Favorite Trumpet Albums
  9. My Top Jazz CDs, Part II
  10. 25 Jazz Albums for All the Tasties

Tracks:

  1. Red Clay
  2. Delphia
  3. Suite Sioux
  4. The Intrepid Fox
  5. Cold Turkey
  6. Red Clay (Alternate Version) (Bonus Track)

Similar Items:

  1. Straight Life
  2. First Light
  3. Ready for Freddie
  4. Hub-Tones
  5. Blue Spirits

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Half-great early fusion (3.5 stars).......2006-05-22

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.

5 out of 5 stars Red Clay.......2006-03-05

Can't say enuff 'bout my main man Freddie Hubbard. From the first disc I heard by him, "First Light", I have been hooked. Freddie is still after over 30 years of listeneing to him, one of my favorite trumpeters and jazzmen. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being best, I rate this a 20!

4 out of 5 stars Great songs & players.......2006-02-26

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.

5 out of 5 stars "Red Clay" Is Red Hot........2005-08-10

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.

5 out of 5 stars Two words: Jam Jazz.......2004-12-18

You have to hear this album to believe what everyone is saying about it. Red Clay is simply beyond category of words. During the first play of listening to this album I couln't understand why I didn't already own it and why hadn't any of my friends already turned me on to it. Red Clay just comes out and clobbers you over the head with jazz/funk/fusion/bop and whatever until you just shake your head in disbelief. Seriously, don't let this one escape your collection.

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