Been in the mood to revisit all of the Freddie Hubbard Blu-Spec CDs I've picked up from cdjapan, so it's been a bit of a Hubbard day so far. All of these albums are from Hubbard's time with CTI, for some reason I decided to start with the last of the albums, Polar AC, and work backwards (I'm know my collection is missing at least one of the CTI albums, Straight Life, and I already had Red Clay on standard CD, so those aren't included below). Up Next: First Light Now Playing: Sky Dive WP: Keep Your Soul Together WP1R (was playing once removed): Polar AC @Stu02 you'd asked me before what I thought about Polar AC, and, now that I've heard it again and it's fresh on my mind, I think it's definitely a good album. However, if you don't have any of Freddie's other CTI albums (the ones listed above + Red Clay), you might want to start with some of those. Despite being recorded over the course of several different recording sessions spanning 1971-1973 (i.e. various sessions for Freddie's preceding CTI albums), it doesn't really sound as such and feels pretty cohesive. While listening to it, I didn't feel like the Polar AC tracks were "leftovers" that didn't make the cut for their respective albums, but now that I've listened to a couple of those preceding albums, I do feel like they are not quite as strong. Nevertheless, still worth it, especially if you see a copy in good condition in the the used bin for not much cash.
I know, and I'm not very good at making decisions... I suppose that's why I usually go with the brute force approach to shopping.
Nice! I need some of these titles. I have the e-Onkyo hi-res [24/192] version of Red Clay. It sounds excellent. Still, I would prefer these on vinyl and luckily there seem to be a steady stream of used CTI at one of our local shops. If only they would land some Hubbard just before I go shopping...!
The ones listed in that post are all Blu-Spec CDs. It's hard to rank them, but I think Get Your Soul Together and First Light may be speaking to me the most today, but, really, they're all good. First Light has a fair amount of strings on it, so folks who don't like strings in their jazz may not be as keen on it, but I, on the other hand, find these strings to be hitting the spot. After I finish off First Light, I think I'm going to have to keep on going and break out my Red Clay CD, and then, after that, my Music Matters Ready for Freddie (the only Hubbard I have on vinyl).
I have loved this LP since it was released and have the European CD, and so when I saw that Vocalion was reissuing this on SACD I had to get it. Sounds great.
I had to keep going with Freddie Hubbard's CTI output and play Red Clay. This is a regular CD, not a BSCD; a 2002 Epic/Legacy.
Just finished listening to the 24/192 his-res version. I really like this lineup and the electric piano, courtesy of Mr. Hancock. It adds some of that 70's dimension stopping just shy of a string section.
Your Sun Ra posts these last few days has had me flipping through my Sun Ra collection. I have queued up A Fireside Chat With Lucifer for the weekend, very much apropos for current events.
Tonight I'm doing another comparative listen, this time to "Stella by Starlight"s from Miles in Berlin and Complete Plugged Nickel.
Music from the 1957-59 TV series, composed by Dave Kahn & Melvyn Lenard and arranged by Skip Martin. With soloists Cappy Lewis, Don Fagerquist & Pete Candoli (tp), Ted Nash & Bud Shank (as, fl), Richie Kamuca (ts), Frank Rosolino & Joe Howard (tb), Pete Jolly (p) & Alvin Stoller (d). Recorded at RCA Hollywood. Producer: Neely Plumb. Engineer: John Norman. 1996 Spanish RCA/BMG reissue of a 1959 LP. Produced for CD release by Jordi Pujol.
CD or LPs? Bob Irwin's Modern Harmonic label has offices in the old (mid-60s) RCA Building on Music Row here.
I like that one a lot too although there sn't much I don't like by Joe. Tge only thing that comes to mind is the Porgy & Bess which I traded in quickly though I did hear Joe and company perform it around that time. The concert was fine but this wasn't something I was going to play much if at all.
I bought this when it was released. I was a big Santana fan at the time so I also bought the album Carlos did with John McLaughlin even though I was not really a jazz fan at the time. While neither got a lot of spins early on I "grew " into them eventually and now I'm glad I have them. I probably play this more often than Love, Devotion, Surrender. WP Nina Simone And Piano (RCA) orange label, dg stereo NP Paul Desmond - Desmond Blue (RCA) Classic Records reissuE CR did a beautiful job on this pressing. The sound is amazing. Even the orchestral backing sounds really detailed.
It might be the barleywine talking (13.4% abv) or my exhaustion from work but Desmond Blue is sounding particularly good tonight. I've never done a serious a/b with my orig. stereo pressing but this CR sounds mighty fine.. Now I'm off to John Renbourn land!
Thanks for the info , I do have his more known cti stuff so starting to dig deeper. You can call me Stu, My name is Stuart and I picked Stu02 because : the brother of a girl I dated for 5 years ,decades ago , recently told me the guy she dated after me by coincidence also had the name stuart so he always referred to him publicly as Stu-two , which naturally drove my ex crazy. I thought it was hysterically funny and thought it would be easy to remember for log in.. Ok maybe I have a strange sense of humour...
I'm back to this one again. It's a great collection of fun accessible Ra material that is about half previously unreleased, and the sound is great. It's so wonderful to have Ra releases that sound great at last!
