The lineage of jazz vibes is one of the easiest to trace, essentially starting with Lionel Hampton, handed off to Red Norvo and then bopped along with Milt Jackson. The last link in the relay was Bobby Hutcherson, who is featured on this important limited edition 7 disc set by Mosaic Records. It’s difficult to grasp the importance of Hutcherson’s contribution to modern jazz, but this boxed collection is a great place to start.
Things start off with a 1963 session that was kept under wraps until 1999, with Grant Green/g, Joe Henderson/ts, Duke Pearson/p, Bob Cranshaw/b and Al Harewood/dr giving an uncharacteristically upbeat take of “If Ever I Would Leave You” and the first version of Henderson’s “The Kicker” along with Hutcherson’s burning “For Duke P”. Hutcherson’s first “official” album as a leader has him in the heavy company of Andrew Hill/p, Freddie Hubbard/tp, Joe Chambers/dr, Richard Davis/b and Sam Rivers/ts-fl for some oblique blues on “Ghetto Lights” and even some sounds of a marching band for “Les Noirs Marchant”.
1966 was a fertile hear for Hutcherson, releasing three albums all pushing the harmonic envelope. He is in a frisky quartet with Herbie Hancock/p, Chambers and Cranshaw, with a rich read of “Maiden Voyage” , and a lyrical “Bouquet” and “When You Are Near”, with lots of space for soloing between Hancock and Hutcherson. Next up comes one of Hutcherson’s most loved albums, bringing in Billy Higgins/dr, Herbie Lewis/b, McCoy Tyner/p and Joe Henderson for an album of mostly originals and a simmering take of “Una Muy Bonita”, with Hutcherson starting a long and beautiful friendship with Tyner on “Black Circle” and “8/4 Beat”. The last album of the year is the most ambitious, bringing in again Hancock, Chambers and Hubbard, with the fiery James Spaulding/as-fl and classy Ron Carter/b for some dynamic interplay as on “Movement”, “Juba Dance” and “Air”.
1968’s Patterns was also kept in the vaults for a number of years, and who knows why, as it’s a corker with Chambers, Spaulding, Cowell and Reggie Workman/b on material ranging from a tribute to MLK on the reflective “A Time To Go” to the tricky “Nocturnal” and “Ankara” . Hutcherson did have two other official releases the same year, keeping Chambers but bringing in Harold Land/fl-ts, Chick Corea/p, and Reggie Johnson for adventures and intellectual pieces like “Matrix” and the opus “Pompeian”. Cowell/p and Reggie Johnson/b are the only changes on his last album that year (another one release quite some time later) , a post bop collection of free spirited modal ideas like “Visions” and “Spiral”.
1969 started out with another Hutcherson album that didn’t see the light of day for a decade, with regulars Land, Chambers, Johnson and Cowell in mellifluous form on “Comes Spring” and Land in a Bodhi Tree mood on “Orientale”. The last session has Hutcherson plugging in for the first time, bringing in Joe Sample/p-ep, John Williams/b-eb and Mickey Roker/dr along with Land, with the leaders getting into a funky mood, grooving with Sample on “Goin’ Down South” and “Jazz!”.
With 3 score years in retrospect, it’s impressive how fresh so much of this music sounds today, showing that pushing the envelope always sounds timeless. This collection is a testament to not only the vision of a musician, but to a label and a period of musical history that the only limiting factor in art was accessibility, and not creativity or courage.