No.96
 | Hubert Laws "Family" COLUMBIA(JC 36396)`80(LP) - U.S.A. |
- N.Y. Type * L.A. Type - Latin Type - Nac/Aor Type
- Black Contemperary Type - Euro. Type - Afro Type
- Jazz Type - Blues Type - Rock Type * H.Laws Type
Hubert Laws is the first man of flute players. Although his works have been
known as a CTI player, I prefer this album better than ones in his CTI era.
But he plays 'Bolero' in this album like he did when he was a CTI player.
The best track in this album is "Family" which his sister Deborah Laws sings.
His image before I listened to this album was a musician arranging and playing
classical music with fusion flavor (this should be one of typical trend of CTI
in those era). For the first time, those kind of fusion arranged classical
music would be interesting and enjoyable, but gradually lost impact because
many musicians started the same thing.
This album was different. In this album, we can hear sophisticated 'vocal
fusion', which became one of big tide of fusion. "Family" starts with intro of sentimental melody and the sound of city overwraps that melody, and then slap bass comes up and leads Deborah's vocal. Her voice sounds like being
squeezed at high notes, but this song fits her voice very well.
Other tunes in this album are typical LA type sounds in the 80's featuring
clear and lucid sounds of flute, for example, Dave Vallentin is one of successors
of this type of flute fusion music. Chick Corea also plays the piano in this album,but we cannot recognize him until seeing recording credit list because he plays
very normal unlike what he has been.
Earl Klugh's guitar sounds best matches the sound of flute, and the combination
of guitar and flute brings me a feeling of delightful and refreshing morning.
This article, the 96th of this Fusion 100 series, has introduced you the very
best album of the one who places significant parts of fusion.
Am I the only one thinking that early GRP sounds were lead by this sound?
 | | | | |  | | | | | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slow |  | Speedy | |||||||||
| Light | | Heavy | |||||||||
| Mellow | | Hard | |||||||||
| Lyrical | | Cool | |||||||||
| Melodious | | Out of melody/code | |||||||||
| Conservative | | Progresseve/Tricky | |||||||||
| Ensemble | | Interplay |
