Freddie Hubbard Red Clay

Various Artists - CTI Records: The Cool Revolution [4CD BoxSet] (2010) {Masterworks}
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© 2010 Masterworks / Sony Music / CTI | 88697 76821 2
Jazz / Fusion / Soul Jazz / Brazilian Jazz

Remastered for the first time using the original two-track analog tapes, this brand new 4-CD set celebrates the vintage years of CTI, when a distinctive style and sound were born. Over 5 hours of music showcase all the major artists on the CTI roster, both in solo performances and in the unforgettable collaborations that made each CTI album so distinctive. Includes a lavishly illustrated 20-page, LP-sized booklet containing rare photos, plus new liner notes by noted jazz critic Dan Ouellette with comments by CTI artists and enthusiasts.

Charles Earland - Leaving This Planet (1973) {2014 Japan Rare Groove Funk Best Collection 1000}
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© 1973, 2014 Prestige / Concord / Universal Music Japan | UCC0-90341
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Soul Jazz / Organ

One of the greatest albums ever from organist Charles Earland – a double-length set that's filled with spiritual, soaring grooves! The style here is a perfect blend of the rougher soul jazz of Earland's roots with some of the spacier styles of his later recordings – served up in a sound that's majestic and powerful, almost with an indie soul jazz sort of vibe overall! There's an immediate urgency to most numbers that's totally undeniable – a lesson learned from the electric experiments of Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis, but fused down into a core essence – then let loose on a soaring journey to the heavens.

This album captured the event that more or less shouted the existence of the CTI label - previously little-known outside of musician circles - to the world. Along with veterans such as Stanley Turrentine and Hank Crawford, the album showcased the playing of Billy Cobham - about to emerge from the Mahavishnu Orchestra in a big way (stealing most of that band's energy and excitement with him when he left) - and comparatively new talents such as George Benson. Not all of the music has aged well - "Blues West" was definitely of its time, though it's still a great showcase for Benson's guitar and Freddie Hubbard's trumpet and, perhaps a little less enduringly so, Hubert Laws' flute. But "Fire and Rain" (a great jazz take on James Taylor's song), "Red Clay," and "Sugar" need no justification for a return visit four decades after the fact, with solos and explorations that will always stand the test of time.

Given that Blue Note Records has issued a definitive 1960s box set of Hancock's earliest – and some consider his most seminal – work, and the literally dozens of best-ofs that have been issued, more by Columbia than by anybody else, this set with its spare futuristic design might at first glance seem like overkill, as in, "do we really need another Herbie Hancock collection, especially a damned box set?" In this case, it's very important to take a second and even third look. For starters, this set is housed in a see-though plastic box, all four CDs clearly visible on spare individual trays. On a fifth tray rests the CD booklet. On the bottom of the box is a sticker identifying the contents within. In the booklet are complete liners by Herbie himself (actually, excepts from an interview by Chuck Mitchell), and gorgeous reproductions of the album covers. It's a cool coffee table conversation piece for hep cats and kitties who are into jazz – or those who just like happening accoutrements in their living spaces.

Accomplished neo-soul queen Angie Stone's second solo outing, Mahogany Soul, delivers more of the organic, gritty, rootsy yet sophisticated soul which put her on the map as a solo artist. The production is great and the songs are funky, mature, and intelligent, but when she truly shines is when she actually spreads her wings and glides away from her neo-soul trappings, which she manages effortlessly.