Freddie Hubbard released The Black Angel in the same year as the landmark Miles Davis album Bitches Brew.
Its obvious Hubbard wanted to appeal to the emerging crossover rock/jazz crowd of the era.
The presence of bop, however, still permeated Hubbard's playing, unlike Miles who had long since dropped the form.
The opening Hubbard composition "Spacetrack" contains fiery avant garde interplay between Hubbard, James Spaulding on alto and Kenny Barron's electric piano.
Thanks to Spaulding and bassist Reggie Workman, much of the playing here maintains intensity.
The other Hubbard penned originals, "Gittin Down" is an urgent hard swinging boogaloo and the ballad "Eclipse" features Spaulding on flute and Barron on piano.
"Coral Keys" written by Walter Bishop, Jr. and Barron's "Black Angel have a Latin tinge highlighted by Spaulding's soaring flute and the congas of Carlos "Patato" Valdes.
An enjoyable session leaving the impression Hubbard was preparing to take a different musical direction.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SpacetrackFreddie Hubbard | Freddie Hubbard | Play | 16:56 | 38 MB | 106 MB |
| 2 | EclipseFreddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus | Freddie Hubbard | Play | 08:18 | 19 MB | 47 MB |
| 3 | The Black AngelKenny Barron | Freddie Hubbard | Play | 08:19 | 19 MB | 52 MB |
| 4 | Coral KeysWalter Bishop, Jr. | Freddie Hubbard | Play | 05:20 | 12 MB | 35 MB |
| 5 | Gettin' Down | Freddie Hubbard | Play | 06:40 | 15 MB | 43 MB |
| 45 mins | 104 MB | |||||
| 45 mins | 285 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thierry Amsallem | Re-Release Coordinator |
| 2 | Kenny Barron | Composer, Guest Artist, Piano, Piano (Electric) |
| 3 | Yves Bigot | Liner Notes |
| 4 | Walter Bishop, Jr. | Composer |
| 5 | Joel Brodsky | Cover Photo |
| 6 | Andree Buchler | Re-Release Coordinator |
| 7 | Donald Elfman | Producer |
| 8 | Ahmet Ertegun | Liner Notes |
| 9 | Loring Eutemey | Cover Art, Cover Design |
| 10 | Gil Fuller | Producer |
| 11 | Louis Hayes | Drums, Guest Artist |
| 12 | Freddie Hubbard | Arranger, Composer, Primary Artist, Trumpet |
| 13 | Bob Liftin | Engineer |
| 14 | Charles Mingus | Composer |
| 15 | Claude Nobs | Liner Notes, Re-Release Coordinator |
| 16 | Gene Paul | Mastering |
| 17 | Scott Paul | Engineer |
| 18 | Jean Ristori | Mastering |
| 19 | James Spaulding | Flute, Sax (Alto) |
| 20 | Urs Tschuppert | Booklet Design |
| 21 | Carlos "Patato" Valdes | Congas, Guest Artist, Maracas |
| 22 | Eddie Williams | Liner Notes |
| 23 | Reggie Workman | Bass |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |