FREDDIE HUBBARD — Liquid Love (review)

FREDDIE HUBBARD — Liquid Love album cover

Album · 1975 · Fusion

4/5 · 2011-12-01
Sean Trane

Like most jazz legends that had to delve in jazz-rock and fusion, Hubbard jumped some months later than Miles did, but if this didn’t make them groundbreakers, they were still consolidating the new genre’s foundations. This album’s cast features some jazz giants like Cables, Randall, Rainey or Webb, but also some pop-rock or fusion names like Ian Underwood (Zappa) or Johnny Guitar Watson, to name just those two. Actually, when being familiar with FH’s discography, taking seriously this album is a bit hard, because of the weird (and ill-fitting) fantasy artwork, but never mind that, because LL is an outstanding JR/F album, even if it comes a tad later than Byrd’s Ethiopian Knights or his own Straight Life. But by the time of this album’s release, both had evolved into more commercial areas, while Freddie was still Hubba-rding around red hot fusion. One of the constant traits on the present album is the use (sometimes nearing abuse) of string synths, but it’s kind of a era signature, but certainly not too cumbersome.

Well the album opens on the soft Midnight At The Oasis, a reprise I think, where the synth string layers are adding a certain dimension, until the outstanding middle section kicks in, with Hubbard’s trumpet is underlined by Watson & Parker’s funky guitars. The following ultra-funky Put In The Pocket is the only sung track (well chorus lines-only) and a co-composition between Hubbard and Randall, but does it ever smoke. Ending the A-side is a 12-mins+ Lost Dreams, a Cables composition, where Underwood’s Minimoog give a few discreet twitches of genius for extra flavour, especially once the middle section kicks in. Cables’ Clavinet solo is simply astounding, but once Randall’s sax comes in, he unloads a ton of spine chills down you speaker cones that you simply stuck to edge of your seat, before the track shifts into a 100mph speed and Hubba-Hubba’s trumpet drives the final nail through your coffin, to wake you up and then, almost definitely, finish you off. Awesome stuff, really!!

The album closes on the spectacular (or should I say: auracular?) 13-mins+ Kunta piece, which opens on a delightful intro, then goes through a multitude of moods and climates, where Hubbard bugle soars like an eagle over the incredible soundscapes laid out by Rainey’s awesome bass bed, Clark’s excellent congas and cowbells, Webb’s awesome drumming. Not totally unlike Santana’s Caravanserai. The piece is interrupted by a conga solo (unlike drum solo, they’re often entertaining if not too long), and once the bass comes back in, one cannot help but being overwhelmed by the finale’s solemnity.

While an unjustly under-estimated album of Hubbard, LL is probably one of the most consistent and even album he ever made, regardless of the styles he went in. Much recommended is you like your fusion to come with huge layers of moleten magma flowing from your speakers.