Freddie Hubbard: Blue Spirits on Blue Note 1966

1966 was the last year that Alfred Lion owned Blue Note Records, because in 1967 Liberty Records bought the company.

1966 also saw John Coltrane go head long into militant free jazz, I use that term affectionately by the way. Freddie Hubbard had already staked a reputation as one of the most in-demand and ballsy sounding trumpeters on the scene.

I love Freddie's in your face brassy tone. I always felt Lee Morgan and Freddy Hubbard were equals on the instrument, and definitely cut there teeth on Clifford Brown.

Blue Spirits is an album that quite frankly is one of the best for the label in the mid 60's, a sort of a soul bop sound, modal and bluesy.

A heavy Kind of Blue influences on the first side of the record I think. "Blue Surge" is a nice little walking blues strut, reminds me of "Freddie Freeloader" from the 1959 Davis Classic.

All of side 2 actually has a nice soulful laid back vibe, but not a bore in any way.

Side 2 ramps up the bop, with a Clifford Brown style number, "Outer Forces", an opening fanfare that has some avant-garde leanings, but quickly turns into a nice hard bop piece, Freddie really lights it up on this track.

Percussionist Big Black stops by to add some congas on "Cunga Black" a nice exotic piece that reminds me of Yusef Lateef, with flute and a nice latin bogaloo, with some hot sax from James Spaulding.

I highly recommend Blue Spirits, as well as every other Blue Note Freddie ever did. Don't shy away from the early 70's CTI stuff either.

Tony Williams Spring: A Kind of Chamber Jazz

1965's Spring from drummer Tony Williams 
is an avant-garde free jazz, or chamber jazz if you will, workout.

Saxophonist Sam Rivers and Wayne Shorter, complete with Herbie Hancock on piano and the underrated Gary Peacock on Bass.

You should not think this is a hard bop date for sure, you won't get too many catchy groovin' heads here, and really only the die-hard open minded person will get much out of this album.

Spring was Tony Williams second as a leader, he was only 19 at the time of this recording. When you consider he was just entering the prime years of the Davis Quintet as well, absolutely astounding to be this good at 19!

For the purposes of this blog post, I would like to mention that the photo of this copy of Spring is a mono Blue Note NY USA label pressing. But is it really a New York USA?

Well this happens to be one of the tricky NY USA label Pressings. What I mean by that is this: When Liberty Records bought out Blue Note, at the end of 1966, Liberty quit using the stampers and the pressing company Plastylite, every Liberty issue does not have the cursive p, or "ear," as it's also known in the dead wax run off area.

This particular copy does not have the ear in the dead wax, but it does have the VAN GELDER stamp in the dead wax.

Here is the dead give away for me, the vinyl is not as thick as a true NY USA press in my opinion, it just looks and feels different.

I bet you, this is a Liberty pressing, that just had the old remaining pre-sale to Liberty NY USA labels used on it.

Very tricky for a collector not to get burned on something like this.

Some one who doesn't know the difference, and several years ago when I got this pictured copy, I thought I was safe, simply because of the NY USA address was on the label.

 I paid about 20 bucks for it as part of a larger lot, still a great deal,  I know the authentic Blue Note First Press would sound better, but I was still happy with this copy, but I should have asked for that ear.

 If the Plastylite "p" isn't there, it most likely is an after 1966 Liberty issue, even with the NY labels.

 I have heard of some authentic pre Liberty buy out copies not having the ear/p in the dead wax, as for what ever the reason the stamper wasn't set properly, who knows?

UPDATE: 

I have a more recent article with more in depth discussion about other little tricks that sellers might do, knowingly or unknowingly, but you have to be aware of the games played. You can find that here.