Red Clay

Joe Henderson (tenor sax), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Herbie Hancock (electric piano), Ron Carter (electric bass) and Lenny White (drums). From the album Red Clay (1970).

This album is in the style of hard bop, but influenced by soul/funk, and was the first one Freddie Hubbard recorded with CTI Records. In it uses all his skills as a composer, soloist and leader. His five compositions come from the depths of the blues, and in them he brings funky hard bop melodies that superimpose to the soft cadences of soul transcending jazz fusion. Hubbard is inspired to take the trumpet to new heights of technical and emotional virtuosity with glimpses of lyrical beauty.

The members of the group are perfectly integrated and show spontaneity and a luminous quality. This music has a light air, a fresh and free feeling due to Hancock’s work, who sails through clear skies effortlessly shining in a higher spiritual ground. Also contributing to create this environment is Carter’s thrilling effect of going up and down the fingerboard of his fretless electric bass.

In the introduction there is an impressive roar. Then there is a concise silence and the group exposes the theme, which is a minor blues, at medium tempo, with a pleasant and simple melody. Next Hubbart begins playing a gentle and relaxed solo that he warms up little by little. His phases become more acute and incisive with juggling, and then he calms down again. Hancock follows with that characteristic sound of the Rhodes electric piano by demonstrating good taste and clarity of thoughts while Henderson and Hubbard make a sound mattress underneath. After that, Henderson comes in with a discontinuous discourse full of different musical motifs while Hubbard makes a sound mattress beneath. Later on Carter arrives with a well measured and meditated solo until the group re-exposes the theme and ends up with a fuss similar to the one at the beginning.