BGO
's 2013 double-disc set combines three late-'70s albums from
Freddie Hubbard
: 1977's
Bundle of Joy
, 1978's
Super Blue
, and 1979's
The Love Connection
. This is roundly considered the weakest phase in
Hubbard
's career, as the soul-funk aspirations of
CTI
slowly turned into smooth jazz, but the three albums here have all their own attributes.
is the smoothest of the bunch, a curious exercise in one of the great hard bop trumpeters pursuing unabashed easy listening. Perhaps this mood music is beneath his skills, but as piece of polyester nostalgia, it's pretty terrific; pulsating to a strobe light, it's tacky, funky, and fun, the sound of leisure being pursued as a passion. By all measures outside of pure nostalgia,
is a better record, retaining a veneer of slickness, but it's essentially a busy, albeit stylized, hard-bop record, one that places emphasis on instrumental interplay, not groove.
splits the difference between the two, having more than its fair share of overblown smoothness, but despite the title track and some vocals on "Little Sunflower," this isn't a particularly funky record: it's designed seduction for late-night quite storm stations. If you have no problem with that description, chances are this
three-fer will be a pleasant surprise. If that seems like sacrilege, there are plenty of
Blue Note
dates for you. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine