Jazz Articles

Freddie Hubbard: Straight Life (40th Anniversary Edition)

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
May 20, 2012

CTI Records reissued trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's November 1970 date, Straight Life, in 2011. As with some of the other reissues in this series (see John Kelman's in-depth discussion of some of the more important of these), its availability on compact disc has been spotty. Straight Life is a good--if not great--record, and it's good to have it back in circulation.The album is pretty simple. Two numbers--the relatively fast title track and Weldon Irvine's slower-grooving “Mr. Clean"--are long modal-funk ...

Freddie Hubbard: Straight Life

by Matt Leskovic
August 8, 2007

Creed Taylor's genre-bending CTI Records held the precarious position as the dominant jazz label during the 1970s--the decade during which the music “died. CTI was a contradiction in itself; it had as much to do with the promotion of straight-ahead, hard-swinging jazz as with spawning smoothed-out, easy-listening records that bordered on muzak. For every album as classy as Jim Hall's Concierto (CTI, 1975) there is a dud like Bob James's BJ4 (CTI, 1977), which comes perilously close to disco. The ...

Nina Simone: Baltimore

by Jim Santella
March 7, 2005

Nina Simone was called “The High Priestess of Soul." We remember her for the eclectic approach she applied to pop music and the emotion she poured into her music every time out. While Baltimore wasn't among her most memorable projects, it does offer a clear picture of the artist's spirit. This reissue provides an opportunity for collectors to secure a sampling of her lesser-known material.

Folk, pop, reggae, and gospel all come together on one program where Simone ...

Deodato: Deodato 2

by David Rickert
July 16, 2002

The surprise success of “Also Sprach Zarathrustra” on Prelude prompted Deodato to quickly follow with Deodato 2, a record that closely followed the template of his first number one hit. Deodato knew there was a lot of money to be made courting the rock audience, and there’s little on this record that could safely be called jazz. However, this record still stands up remarkably well today, unlike some of the other keyboard-driven records from the era. This time “Rhapsody in ...

George Benson: Bad Benson

by David Rickert
July 11, 2002

Some tunes are so sacred that any attempt to cover them can only result in failure. Yet George Benson makes this mistake twice on Bad Benson ; the band can’t quite manage a groove in 5/4 on Brubeck’s “Take Five” and once again falter with a horrid disco version of Ellington’s “Take The ‘A’ Train” complete with fake train whistles. Creed Taylor should have offered rebates to anyone that could listen to these numbers more than once without wincing. However, ...

Freddie Hubbard: Red Clay

by David Rickert
July 11, 2002

Like Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard's best work was always in the service of others until he signed with Creed Taylor's CTI label. He then released a trio of albums that represents his crowning achievement as a leader. Red Clay finds him in the company of Herbie Hancock, who played a large part in defining jazz fusion, as well as heavyweights like Ron Carter, Joe Henderson, and Lenny White. The title track kicks off the record with a funky ...

Antonio Carlos Jobim: Stone Flower

by David Rickert
May 6, 2002

Jobim has been described as the Gershwin of Brazilian music, which is an apt title for a man who contributed so many original songs to the jazz repertoire, adding a few standards along the way. Those who were inspired to follow his work after “The Girl From Ipanema” may have picked up Wave, his most well-known solo record, but may have overlooked Stone Flower, a markedly better effort. The drippy strings on the former record brought out the quiet romanticism ...

Stanley Turrentine: Sugar

by David Rickert
May 6, 2002

With Sugar Stanley Turrentine finally delivered on the promise of his Blue Note albums, which were for the most part unspectacular. Following the standard blueprint of the CTI label, Turrentine runs through a handful of steamy, soul jazz workouts with some veterans from the recently deceased hard bop era as well as some up-and-comers from the next generation of electric jazz. With only three tunes on the record, everyone gets plenty of room to explore and eagerly takes advantage of ...

Johnny Hammond: Breakout

by Jim Santella
April 12, 2002

The CTI jazz catalog holds many surprises. This one features a strong 8-piece band led by organist Johnny Hammond (1933-1997), who was known earlier as Johnny “Hammond" Smith. Recorded in 1971, the album emphasized swinging mood music with a flair for popular sounds. It marked a turning point in the career of Grover Washington, Jr. He, Hank Crawford and Eric Gale are all over the place, alongside Hammond's B-3. It’s a party. A previously unissued track, recorded shortly after the ...

Johnny Hammond: Breakout

by David Rickert
April 12, 2002

A prime example of the CTI label’s indulgence in the commercial possibilities of jazz, Breakout gave Johnny Hammond the opportunity to escape from the long shadow cast by Jimmy Smith. Sticking with the Hammond B-3, by this time a bit old-fashioned as many had become enchanted with the Fender Rhodes, Hammond and his band contribute an album’s worth of soul jazz workouts. By this time, rock tunes had become the new would-be standards and Hammond proves that such unlikely candidates ...