Freddie Hubbard - 1973 - Sky Dive

Freddie Hubbard

1973

Sky Dive

01. Povo 12:33

02. In A Mist 7:04

03. The Godfather 7:21

04. Sky Dive 7:40

Bass – Ron Carter

Bass Clarinet – Phil Bodner

Bass Trombone – Paul Faulise

Clarinet – George Marge, Romeo Penque

Drums – Billy Cobham

Flugelhorn – Marvin Stamm

Flute – Hubert Laws

Flute [Alto] – Hubert Laws, Romeo Penque

Flute [Bass] – Hubert Laws

Guitar – George Benson

Oboe – Romeo Penque

Percussion – Airto, Ray Barretto

Piano, Electric Piano – Keith Jarrett

Trombone – Garnett Brown, Wayne Andre

Trumpet – Alan Rubin, Freddie Hubbard

Tuba – Tony Price

Recorded at Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, October 4 and 5, 1972

Freddie Hubbard's fourth CTI recording (and the second one with Don Sebesky arrangements) certainly has a diverse repertoire. In addition to his originals "Povo" and "Sky Dive" (both of which are superior jam tunes), the trumpeter stretches out on the theme from The Godfather and Bix Beiderbecke's "In a Mist." The charts for the brass and woodwinds are colorful; there is a fine supporting cast that includes guitarist George Benson, Keith Jarrett on keyboards, and flutist Hubert Laws; and Hubbard takes several outstanding trumpet solos.

I don’t know if the assembly-line tac­tics of the ubiquitous Creed Taylor label are paying off commercially, but judging by the speed with which they’re coming off the conveyor belt, I suppose they are. This is Hubbard’s second album for CTI, with another on the way; once again it shows that he’s never recovered from his years with the Jazz Messengers.

His recent residency at Scott’s had him bopping in old Blakey style, while this album embraces a hotch-potch of music­al contexts, ranging from funk-rock to Beiderbecke to Bossa Nova and back to Blakey – all of which suggests a schizo­phrenic rather than versatile attitude. Sadly, Hubbard is lost in a period he can’t come to terms with, while fellow Messengers have either thrown in their lot, contented themselves with the past, or, like Wayne Shorter, forged way ahead. But that’s another story.

Povo drags a Hubbard composition uneasily into up-dated rock. Introduced by a Gil Evans style spread, Carter opens with a simple bass riff which continues remorselessly through the number’s absurdly drawn-out length. The equally simple melody line covers what is basically a languorous early Shor­ter 12-bar composition; add some names like Cobham, Jarrett and Benson and you’ve got a track which does Creed Taylor proud. These presumably lucra­tively enticed session men are hardly enthusiastic, but at least the ball’s roll­ing.

Cobham does especially well by waking up occasionally to change em­phases and add off-beats, only to be forced back by clumsy bouts of orches­tration. Laws alone is trying, and he provides the only solo of any listenable worth. In his other composition, Sky Dive, a piece of Quincy Jones bossa-funk, Hubbard at least bursts into a healthy and sustained playing, in uncompromised tone, of his original style. The following breaks by Benson and Jarrett are just short enough not to steal the show.

Beiderbecke’s In A Mist makes as few bones about its wallowing Messengers treatment as much as Jarrett and Cobham are unafraid to parody a ten year-old Cedar Walton and Art Blakey back­up – which leaves one wondering idly if Hubbard directed them so, or, if not, whether he was aware of what was go­ing on behind his back. Lastly, yet an­other blood-transfusion of the love theme from The Godfather already again, in which a predictable arrangement and glossy orchestration is spared only by a few neat changes in tempo, a miniscule but authentic Jarrett introduction and a brief spell when Cobham, Jarrett and particularly Carter are permitted a couple of minutes trio work.