Jazz Archives

High Energy (1974): Freddie Hubbard left CTI Records in 1973, having become a much bigger star than most jazz players could ever hope to be, to sign a million-dollar contract with Columbia Records, long the home of Hubbard's hero and fellow trumpeter Miles Davis. In addition to the money, Hubbard sought more control of his music than CTI allowed him, and the opportunity to record with his own band rather than the all-star studio assemblages CTI forced upon him. For his first Columbia album, High Energy (1974), Hubbard did use his own band, a quintet that featured George Cables on piano and Junior Cook on tenor sax (both were also heard on Hubbard's final CTI album, Keep Your Soul Together), plus a collective sweetening of L.A. studio musicians, arranged with surprisingly minimal impact by Dale Oehler. There are two strong Hubbard originals here ("Baraka Sasa" and the album's single, "Crisis"), two excellent Cables originals (the Hubbard-like "Camel Rise," also arranged by Oehler for Bobby Hutcherson's 1975 album Montara, and the slightly well-known "Ebony Moonbeams," which Hubbard also covered on his Japanese-only live LP, Gleam, and Cables also performed on his 1975 solo debut as well as with Hutcherson on the vibist's 1979 album Un Poco Loco) and two Stevie Wonder tunes ("Too High" and the little-known "Black Maybe"). While the arrangements are more minimal than even those that Don Sebesky provided Hubbard at CTI, the electronics quotient is a little higher than usual here with Ian Underwood adding Headhunters-like synth effects (ala Patrick Gleeson), Hubbard employing echo effects and Cables on electric piano throughout. While Hubbard sounds especially strong here, very much in his element, the album never really rises above a genuinely engaging listening experience. But, in praise of the thing, it is a genuinely engaging listening experience.

:::Review by Douglas Payne:::

Freddie Hubbard - High Energy (1974)

A1. Camel Rise
Flute [Bass Flute] – Ernie Watts
Written-By – G. Cables 6:23
A2. Black Maybe
Drums – Harvey Mason
Written-By – S. Wonder 4:58
A3. Baraka Sasa
Written-By – F. Hubbard 10:29
B1. Crisis
Trombone – Dick Hyde
Drums – Harvey Mason
Written-By – F. Hubbard 5:44
B2. Ebony Moonbeams
Bass Clarinet – Pete Christleib
Soprano Saxophone – Ernie Watts
Written-By – G. Cables 6:55
B3. Too High
Tenor Saxophone – Junior Cook, Pete Christleib
Flute – Ernie Watts
Written-By – S. Wonder 6:37

Credits
Bass – Kent Brinkley
Clavinet, Organ – Joe Sample
Conductor, Arranged By – Dale Oehler
Congas – King Errisson
Drums – Ralph Penland
Electric Piano – George Cables
Flute, Tenor Saxophone – Junior Cook
Guitar – Dean Parks
Percussion – Victor Feldman
Synthesizer [Arp] – Ian Underwood
Timbales – Carmello Garcia
Trombone – Dick Hyde, George Bohanon
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Freddie Hubbard