Freddie Hubbard - "Polar AC" (1975)

Released in 1975, this was trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's sixth and final release for Creed Taylor's CTI Records, made at a time when he was already exploring new styles over at Columbia Records. It's his only CTI release that remains out of print - apart from a very brief Japan-only CD release some years back - but it's got some great tracks, players, textures and arrangements.

Hubbard was prolific in his output throughout the 70s as both leader and sideman.
After a string of albums on the Blue Note label in the 60s, he released two albums in 1969 that in some ways foreshadowed the two sides of his 70s work. While "The Black Angel" reaches out to the Bitches Brew Miles Davis crowd, with growling rhodes, experimental textures and spatial jams, "A Soul Experiment" lurched into soul-jazz over a Bernard Purdie backbeat. Hubbard was to continue to slip into the cracks between jazz and funk throughout the 70s.

Things got underway quickly in 1970 on CTI with two releases - the beautiful "Red Clay" began to stretch the hard bop textures with a new electric feel, often courtesy of Mr Hancock's rhodes, while the looser "Straight Life" hit a new groove with added percussion (including Weldon Irvine on tambourine!). 1971's "First Light" expanded the palette with Don Sebesky's string orchestrations taking things to a different level, with the album reaching a wider audience and even nabbing a Grammy award. 1972's "Sky Dive" continued the same pattern, with Sebesky's added string arrangements once again ensuring commercial success.

In the early 70s, CTI frequently toured its high-profile roster of jazz stars - who included George Benson, Stanley Turrentine, Hubert Laws, Hubbard and others - and released the live results on a great series of albums under the name "The CTI All-Stars". Hubbard's tracks featured on both 1971's "California Concert - the Hollywood Palladium" and 1972's three-album set "CTI Summer Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl". Also, check out this nice 1972 live bootleg.

In early 1973, CTI released two blistering live albums under the title "Freddie Hubbard / Stanley Turrentine In Concert" - Volume 1 and Volume 2 - with several Hubbard originals, and Herbie Hancock working overtime on the rhodes on 'Hornets'. Later in the year, Hubbard pulled back to a septet for the beautiful "Keep Your Soul Together", an almost perfect merge of hard bop, soul jazz (Junior Cook on tenor sax is a standout) and funky rhodes from Mr George Cables.

in 1974, he took virtually the same band with him to Columbia Records to record the funky "High Energy". There's a play with various styles here, and Hubbard seems atuned to the modal electricity of other jazz artists who were branching into post-Davis funk-jazz, like Eddie Henderson and Bobby Hutcherson. Cables is adding clavinet counter-rhythms to his rhodes, and the funk is pushing through to the front.

In 1975's "Liquid Love", Hubbard lets the funk take centre stage. Apart from the extended latinesque workout of "Kudu", where Hubbard channels amplified and echoed Miles Davis wails, he sits back in a combo funk effort. Cables' rhodes and string synthesiser become more textural and harmonic backing, with more straight-ahead funk emanating from the guitars of Ray Parker Jr and Johnny Guitar Watson, and even a group funk vocal track with "Put It In the Pocket". Later in the year, the group recorded the double-live set "Gleam" in Tokyo, with tracks drawn from his last three albums.


Sometime between those two 1975 albums, CTI released this Freddie Hubbard album, Polar AC. It's a lush, heavily orchestrated, accessible piece of jazz that in some ways continues on from "First Light" and "Sky Dive" - the final track is an adaptation and extension of the title track from the latter album. Don Sebesky and Bob James tag-team the orchestrations and arrangements on two tracks each, with the band pulling back to septet for the final track. While I can't find exact recording dates, it has a definite pre-Columbia feel to it, and I wonder if it was held back while Hubbard was working his way out of his contract ...

Hubbard's playing is superb, but he gives just as much solo space to flautist Hubert Laws - at times it's almost a duo album, with the two intertwining over Sebesky and James' orchestrations, often joined by guitarist George Benson and rhodes player George Cables. Sebesky and James almost seem to be having a pissing competition with their alternating string arrangements, the sense of competition often producing great results.

The highlight is the Bob James-arranged "People Make the World Go Round" previously performed by Hubbard on the superb Milt Jackson CTI album "Sunflower" in 1972. It starts with Airto doing his "talk to the animals" percussion noises against distorted patches of Rhodes colour from Cables. Whereas Don Sebesky's arrangement of the track on the Milt Jackson album worked its way into an angular keyboard-led funk, Bob James' arrangement here takes things deeper into the melodic melancholy that emanated from the Stylistics' original, with winding crescendoes of string melodies gradually providing a bed for Hubbard's solos. Bob James also orchestrates another Stylistics track, "Betcha By Golly Wow".

On the title track "Polar AC", Sebesky builds up the tension with orchestral flourishes over a solid, joyous bass line from Ron Carter, anchored by some crazy snare and cymbal work from Jack deJohnette. Hubbard plays in and around the building strings with some great solo work. The other Sebesky-arranged track is a cover of Nat Adderley's "Naturally". Hubbard and Laws solo over the solid jazz trio of Benson, Carter and Billy Cobham, while Sebesky snakes in big band and woodwind sections to suddenly broaden the texture.

We finish off with the (relatively!) sparser septet of the thirteen-minute "Son Of Sky Dive", Junior Cook's saxaphone harmonising the main melody with Hubbard, while George Cables gets down to some rhodes playing over Lennie White's flailing toms.

Anyway, I hope this post helps some of you complete your 70s Freddie Hubbard collection!

TRACKLIST 

01 "Polar AC" (Cedar Walton)
02 "People Make The World Go Round (Bell/Creed)
03 "Betcha By Golly Wow" (Bell/Creed)
04 "Naturally" (Nat Adderley)
05 "Son Of Sky Dive" (Freddie Hubbard)

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Produced by Creed Taylor
Recorded at Van Gelder Studios
Rudy Van Gelder, Engineer
Cover photograph by Pete Turner
Liner photograph by Fred Valentine
Album Design by Bob Ciano
This album is also available on stereo 8 track and cassette tapes.

POLAR AC
Arranged by Don Sebesky

Trumpet - Freddie Hubbard
Bass - Ron Carter
Drums - Jack DeJohnette
Guitar - George Benson
Flute - Hubert Laws
Strings - Al Brown, Paul Gershman, Emanuel Green, Harold Kohon, Joe Malin, Charles McCracken, David Nadien, Mathew Raimondi, George Ricci, Tosha Samaroff, Irving Spiece, Manny Vardi.(Maybe one of these guys will google themselves and say hi?) 

PEOPLE MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND
BETCHA BY GOLLY WOW
Arranged by Bob James

Trumpet - Freddie Hubbard
Electric Piano - George Cables (on "People")
Bass - Ron Carter
Drums - Lenny White (on "People")
Guitar - George Benson
Percussion - Airto
Flute - Hubert Laws
Strings - Max Ellen, Paul Gershman, Emmanuel Green, Theodore Israel, Charles Libove, Harry Lookovsky, Joe Malin, David Nadien, Gene Orloff, George Ricci, Tony Sophos, Manny Vardi

NATURALLY
Arranged by Don Sebesky

Trumpet - Freddie Hubbard
Bass - Ron Carter
Drums - Billy Cobham
Guitar - George Benson
Flute - Hubert Laws
Woodwinds - Phil Bodner, Wally Kane, George Marge, Romeo Penque
Brass - Wayne Andre, Garnett Brown, Paul Faulise, Tony Price, Alan rubin, Marvin Starren

SON OF SKY DIVE

Trumpet - Freddie Hubbard
Piano - George Cables
Bass - Ron Carter
Drums - Lennie White
Tenor Saxaphone - Junior Cook
Flute - Hubert Laws

POST CREDITS

Vinyl rip by Simon666.

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