FREDDIE HUBBARD — The Black Angel (review)

FREDDIE HUBBARD — The Black Angel album cover Album · 1970 · Post Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
js
In 1970 Herbie, Miles and almost everyone else from that generation of jazz performers were off playing fusion, getting gigs at larger venues and making the big bucks, but not Freddie Hubbard. Kudos to Freddie for having the integrity to pass on that easy ride to fortune and sticking with the ‘real jazz’. Although Hubbard was ignoring the prevailing trends, there is nothing anachronistic or antiquated about ‘The Black Angel’. Hub quite rightly knew that there was still a lot of great music to be made exploring the still new post bop genre that Herbie and Miles had just laid aside. Post bop is a very open ended genre that has room for many influences and on this album Freddie turns to the avant-garde, Latin jazz, funky RnB and other styles to keep his music fresh and modern.

One standout cut includes the avant-garde album opener ‘Space Track’, whose slow mournful melody backed by an extremely busy double time rhythm section may remind some of Ornette Coleman. On ‘Gittin Down’ Freddie and his crew get with that electric piano driven rockin RnB sound that had been popularized by Joe Zawinul’s work with the Adderly Brothers and Herbie’s ‘Cantaloupe Island’. Album closer ‘Coral Keys’ has a nice semi-samba lounge groove courtesy of the conga work of Carlos ‘Patato’ Valdes and a groovy flute solo from Jimmy Spaulding. Valdes’ conga work adds much to this album throughout.

This album is recommended for anyone who likes that late 60s (or in this case early 70s) post bop sound. On a side note, the avant-garde cut ‘Space Track’ always reminds me of my college days when I played in the East Texas State jazz band. We were routinely ignored by everyone because we were in the shadow of the mighty North Texas State lab bands. At the local jazz festivals every school would show up and do their best Thad Jones-Mel Lewis imitation only to get gunned down by the NTSU crew every time. One year our band director thought he would do something different and our little rag tag ensemble skipped the usual modern big band fare and played a furious chaotic version of ‘Space Track’ on which I was given an extended ride on some experimental electronics I had devised due to my interest in Sun Ra. Needless to say, the judges didn’t like us and our band director was replaced by someone more conservative, ha ha. Still, it sure was fun bringing the noise while the NTSU groupies looked on in horror and disgust.
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