Amongst the many records that I spun on my turntable today on this rainy Sunday afternoon, this is the one which got me thinking about music as a whole. To cut a story short, Hubert Laws is the Jimi Hendrix of flute. He's an unbelievable player, endlessly inventive and fresh-sounding as ever. He, like Miles Davis and ahem..Lady Gaga, attended the prestigious J
uilliard School of Music in New York where he trained as a flautist/flutist (no one really knows huh?). On this double LP released on the CTI label (a mighty fine US jazz/soul-jazz label with a roster including the likes of
Bob James, Grover Washington Jr and many other luminaries of the genre) is considered by many as Laws' pinnacle and his most accomplished set of recordings. The flute is funky throughout and the many musos who play on this record are obviously guns in their own right. The cover art is as striking as the music itself (that's why I like vinyl you see, it's the ultimate art form, music and visual art rolled into one nifty package, if the music is good that is...). The tunes are mostly made of covers ranging from a beautiful rendition of Gymnopedie #1 (By Erik Satie) to Moment's Notice, a scintillating Coltrane instrumental. It's worth mentioning that Laws has played with countless musical celebrities from Herbie Hancock to Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder. The man is a legend.
Hubert Laws in full flight here
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