George Benson
Body Talk
CTI Masterworks
www.ctimasterworks.com

Freddie Hubbard
Straight Life
CTI Masterworks
www.ctimasterworks.com

Hubert Laws
In The Beginning
CTI Masterworks
www.ctimasterworks.com

Stanley Turrentine
Don’t Mess With Mister T
CTI Masterworks
www.ctimasterworks.com
By George W. Harris

Tapping into their mother lode of gold, CTI/Sony has been bringing out some of the finest of their precious metals from their vaults, and this music, like the tangible commodity, gets more valuable every day when compared to the present day dross used as present currency.
George Benson’s 1973 Body Talk finds him at an artistic apotheosis, able to mix bona fide chops with accessible grooves and rhythms, thanks to the production here by James Brown’s Pee Wee Ellis. Benson picks the strings until they beg for forgiveness on “Dance” while he and Earl Klugh are as suave as Astaire and Rogers on Donny Hathaway’s “When Love Has Grown.” The funky back beat is right on the mark, as it’s delivered by Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette and Harold Mabern with Afro-Sheen perfection on the title track. What a concept-commercial music that cooks!

If you want to hear how a flute is played, go no further than this classic 1974 release by Hubert Laws. Teamed with CTI regulars like Carter, Gadd, Moreira and James, Laws goes from ethereal beauty as on “Symnopedie #1” to rip roaring hard bop on “Airgin” and “Moment’s Notice” He does about 3 rounds of mano a mano heavy weight work with Gadd on “Restoration” which will have you gasping for air, while the two marathon tunes, “Roconciliation” and “Mean Lene” combine funk, jazz and third world exoticism. Not a nanosecond of anything less than classic here.

When Freddie Hubbard was putting out stuff like this 1971 session, he was not only the standard by which other trumpeters were measured, but the goal of every jazz artist. His opening salvo on the 17 minute title track still sends shivers up your spine, while the combination of soul/funk and straight-ahead jazz is simply irresistible. He does everything with his horn except turn it into a lava lamp on “Mr. Clean” while it shines like a full moon on the incandescent “Here’s That Rainy Day.” Benson, Carter, DeJohnette, Hancock and Henderson all get a moment in the spotlight, but this is Hubbard’s day, and he sounds like Pavarotti at La Scala here.

For some strange reason, Stanley Turrentine’s 1973 release doesn’t get the accolades that his subsequent Sugar Man does. For my money, it’s as good, if not better. His horn sounds like it was double dipped in lava; the sound from his tenor is one of the jazz wonders of the world. The mood is bluesy and soulful, and Turrentine grooves like a locomotive on “Too Blue” and the title track. Electric keyboards supplied by Bob James and Harold Mabern, along with lush strings and moody brass, give some of the songs a real full windup, but no matter the environment or attitude, T’s horn rolls like Old Man River. If this disc doesn’t make you want to take up the tenor sax, than you’re probably going to be a hairstylist or veterinarian.