Holding the world record for the most recording sessions of any jazz bassist in history (2,221 as of 2015), Ron Carter has provided some of the world’s greatest bass lines: Joe Henderson’s ‘Power to the People’ (1969), Alice Coltrane’s ‘Blue Nile’ (1970) and Freddie Hubbard’s ‘Red Clay’ (1970).
A year after Power to the People, Red Clay reunites Carter with his electric bass, Joe Henderson and Herbie Hancock for another fusion masterpiece that blends hard bop with electric grooves. Producer Creed Taylor founded CTI Records in 1967 with a model straight out of the Blue Note playbook: the great Rudy Van Gelder on recording duties, and a “repertory company” of high-profile session musicians with Carter and Hancock at its core.
Back in 1960 Taylor founded Impulse! where he produced Oliver Nelson’s post-bop classic The Blues and the Abstract Truth (1961), and was particularly impressed with 22-year-old trumpeter Freddie Hubbard’s contribution. He signed Hubbard to CTI in 1970 and invited the rhythm section from Miles Davis’ recently disbanded “Second Great Quintet” (Herbie, Carter and Tony Williams) to Van Gelder’s legendary Englewood Cliffs studio.
Ever the control freak, Miles was pissed at the trio playing sessions together so Williams recommended 20-year-old Lenny White (one of the four drummers on Miles’ Bitches Brew) take his place. White recalls playing with the legendary Red Clay lineup: “I was pretty scared with all those guys. These were my heroes; these were the guys that I was listening to on records and to get an opportunity to play with them was pretty special.”
The sessions themselves proved less positive for the young drummer: “I hated the way I sounded and I didn’t like the way I played… it was a traumatic thing for me.” This trauma meant White didn’t listen to Red Clay for 10 years, missing out on a stunning set (with an equally striking album cover) that covers a lot of ground stylistically: jazz-funk (‘Red Clay’), blues (‘Delphia’), latin (‘Suite Sioux’), hard bop (‘The Intrepid Fox’) and on the CD release, a groovy 10-minute reworking of John Lennon’s ‘Cold Turkey’.
This crossover sound resulted in commercial success, reaching #40 in the US R&B charts (and #14 in the jazz charts) while the 12-minute title cut would become Hubbard’s signature tune. From a bluesy wailing of horns emerges Carter’s bass line and White’s drum groove, glued together as if by clay. The slinky rhythm builds into an almost ambient backdrop for a series of simmering solos (not unlike ‘Stolen Moments’ from the aforementioned Oliver Nelson album), kicking off with Hubbard’s trademark display of rhythm, style and fuzz; the soulful sound of glowing reds and deep blues.
Take a breather and put on our ‘Brass With Class’ playlist featuring more titans of the trumpet.
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