Stanley Kuberik

A 1973 live album co-starring Freddie Hubbard (tp) and Stanley Turrentine (ts), two horn players representing CTI. He is developing an incandescent interplay with all-star groups Herbie Hancock (elp), Eric Gale (g), Ron Carter (b) and Jack DeJohnette (ds). Both of the two songs recorded are enthusiastic performances that exceed 19 minutes, and the whole play of the super players will be developed. In particular, the performance of Hubbard's masterpiece "Gibraltar", in which the group burns together, is impressive.

Before there was Saturday Night Fever there was underground disco. DJs across America went out and found the music to play; dancers went out and found the clubs. At this point, in the early seventies, the disco was the venue and not a genre of music.

West Side Highway reunites Stanley Turrentine with arranger/conductor Claus Ogerman for a funky yet oddly melancholy crossover session that at its best suggests a latter-day interpretation of the tenorist's classic Blue Note dates. Ogerman's bold, dramatic arrangements boast an atypical elegance and restraint that beautifully underline the soulfulness of Turrentine's solos. Even better, the backing vocals that hampered previous LPs are absent here, affording a new spaciousness for the all-star contributions of Eric Gale, Cornell Dupree, Ron Carter, and Hubert Laws. A shame the material is so tepid and predictable, including yet another reading of Turrentine's signature "Sugar" and the jazz perennial "Walkin'."

Cherry is one of those early CTI albums that offers the listener the best of both the past and the future of jazz music in the early 1970s. Stanley Turrentine's husky tenor is a perfect match for Milt Jackson's soulful vibes, and when Bob James' masterful work on the Fender Rhodes is thrown into the mix we get a heady blend of soul-jazz, hard bop and the burgeoning funk-jazz sound all wrapped into one cohesive and very enjoyable record…