Featured Artist: Terry Gibbs

Jazz CD cover CD Title: Findin’ The Groove!

Year: 2007

Record Label: Jazzed Media

Style: Straight-Ahead / Classic

Musicians: Terry Gibbs (vibes), Hubert Laws (flute), Dan Faehnle (guitar), Tom Ranier (piano), Hamilton Price (bass), Gerry Gibbs (drums), Joan Carroll (vocals [4 & 9]).

Review: For me, however, it is Gibbs’ choice of “special guest” artist that really makes the date. Hubert Laws should be in the Down Beat Hall of Fame. Call me prejudiced if you wish, (I am a flutist!), but there is no performer who has gained more complete mastery of his instrument and the jazz idiom. But because the instrument in question is the flute rather than the trumpet or the saxophone, he is not well known to many jazz lovers. True, some of his own recordings have not been too well received by critics, but if you seek out his work as a sideman with McCoy Tyner, Milt Jackson, Ron Carter, Victor Feldman and a host of others, you will hear solos that are breathtaking in their technical mastery, harmonic sophistication and melodic inventiveness. He is also one of the handful of artists who are equally proficient in jazz and classical performance–which is evident across the board in the sound he draws from the instrument. He has a Lifetime Achievement award from the National Flute Association and flute players are generally in awe of him! If you have not heard Laws’ work this is as good a place as any to start as he gets plenty of solo space on every track. (If you like what you hear there is a discography of his work in my forthcoming book The Flute In Jazz.)

Tracks: 1. Bernie’s Tune 2. Wednesday at Two 3. Findin’ the Groove 4. But Not For Me 5. Teach Me Tonight 6. Killer Joe 7. Dance With The Brushes 8. Samba Wazoo 9. The House That Might Have Been 10. Four Brothers 11. Take My Blues Away 12. Wee 13. One Minute And 45 Seconds To Station Break

Record Label Website: http://www.jazzedmedia.com

Artist’s Website: http://www.terrygibbs.net

Reviewed by: Peter Westbrook
Copyright© 2007 JazzReview.com®. All Rights Reserved.

Hubert Laws solos on Stevie Wonder’s latest CD track “My Love Is On Fire” and is even introduced audibly by Stevie just before playing the flute solo. What a blast!!!

Got a call from Chick Corea with invitation to play with him Eddie Gomez, Airto Moriera in Seattle’s Jazz Alley, and Oakland’s Yoshi’s end of November into December. Visit Hubert Laws website and click on “News” for more details later.

88 year old genius Gerald Wilson invites Hubert Laws to record with his big band in New York City June 4,5, 2007.
Some of the players in that band were: John Faddis, trumpet, Jimmy Owens, trumpet, Antonio Hart, Saxophon. What an energizing experience to hear such artistry from so many fine musicians. New incentive was given me to embark on an intense study of chord reading to create linear lines.

The Post-Standard

CNY Orchestra, Laws offer solid night of jazz
Sunday, October 22, 2006

By Chuck Klaus
Contributing writer

The start of the 11th season of the CNY Jazz Orchestra was a strong one, featuring skilled jazz flutist Hubert Laws.

Laws is deservedly well-known for a long series of albums stretching back to the 1960s, and he’s made mainstream jazz hits from “Amazing Grace” and his renditions of classical pieces, as well as original compositions. Although wonderfully at home in the recording studios, where he has contributed to projects by the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Roberta Flack and Claude Bolling, Laws is a graceful and ingratiating live performer.

Before Laws performed in the second half of the concert, the CNY Jazz Orchestra had a chance to shine, first with Michael Abene’s arrangement of the old Ray Noble tune “The Touch of Your Lips.” The smooth, cool version made for a mellow concert opener, and demonstrated the strength of the group: solid tone and technique, with a really strong spine of a rhythm section, featuring drummer and CNY Jazz Orchestra Executive Director Larry Luttinger.

Luttinger time and again provided just the right inventive and forward-pressing touch. Music director Bret Zvacek showed himself an able leader, and a polished composer and arranger, based on his “You Again” and several other charts played during the evening.

The most unusual and progressive work in part one of the concert was Bill Holman’s “More About Thirds,” a 10-minute-plus piece that gave some indication of what Stan Kenton might have sounded like had he lived another quarter century.

After intermission, Laws took the stage and raised the bar, first with a piccolo rendition of Zvacek’s “It Might Be You.” Immediately, one was struck not only by deep technical abilities, but also a musical sense that balanced bursts of virtuoso invention with beautifully played lyrical content.

That same high level of improvised balance came through in Frank Mantooth’s rather uptempo version of the Blackburn/Suessdorf ballad “Moonlight in Vermont.” Joe Newman’s “Midgets” was a wild little work, followed by Laws’ simple and effective “What a Night.”

“Family” was well sung by Cindy Miller, who exhibited both sustained power, a nice sense with a lyric and an impressive vocal range.

After a standing ovation, Neil Hefti’s ultra-smooth “Lil’ Darlin’ ” - well-known to “Tonight Show” fans of the Johnny Carson era, when it was used as a sign-off for many a broadcast - brought one more chance to savor the mellow approach and beautiful sound of the still-reigning master of the jazz flute.

© 2006 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.

Copyright 2006 syracuse.com. All Rights Reserved.

Music is the gift for which we must all be grateful. Throughout my lifetime it has been a link to forming new friendships, therapeutic, a means of communication, and most importantly a reason to glorify the Creator of this wonderful art form.

This DVD is a compendium of performances that span more than thirty years. Many of these concerts were long forgotten until a friend made some of these videos available. Because of the continued evolution of video technology from early years until now, the quality viewed in this project is varied. However, these performances give a progressive mix of musical idioms, which gave me the opportunity to communicate. Jazz, Classical, Gospel, Latin and Blues are the idiomatic mediums that served as vehicles for such expressions.

I am most grateful for the musical talent leading to a livelihood that connects me with people and forming relationships.

Praise Jah for the gift of music.

Hubert Laws