Imagine being a 21-year-old female flautist and signing with Blue Note for your debut album. On top of that honor, you also have the good fortune to enlist a studio band consisting of trumpeter Lee Morgan, drummer Idris Muhammad, and saxophonist Billy Harper, among other badasses. That’s some impressive mojo. So, Bobbi Humphrey burst into the American jazz scene with much pressure, but she met the moment with poise and skills to burn.
Now, Humphrey at this point was not writing her own songs, but she had great taste in material, and would later work with the amazing composer/arrangers Larry and Fonce Mizell on a grip of soul-jazz classics in the ’70s. For Flute-In, Humphrey and company tackle soul, funk, and jazz gems with a light, suave touch. Here I would like to announce my bias for the flute—I fucking love it and wish it appeared more in most musical genres. It’s one of the most effective conduits for sonic calm and beauty, and nothing haters can say about the instrument will sway me.
Anyway, back to Humphrey’s album. It was wise to start with “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Humphrey really brings out the desolate allure of the melody from Bill Withers’ poignant 1971 hit. Bobbi keeps it to a tight 2:30, which suggests that Blue Note also was going for major radio play. Same applies to the rendition of Carole King and Toni Stern’s “It’s Too Late.” Thankfully, Humphrey makes this breezy pop staple exponentially cooler by dint of her mellifluous and deceptively melancholy flute flights. George Devens’ vibes add spine-tingling enticement to this 1971 romantic melodrama, which my sainted late mother loved whenever it came on the radio; for a while, that was every 20 minutes.
Lee Morgan’s 1964 hard bop classic “The Sidewinder” soars into ebullience here, with the man himself playing trumpet, while Humphrey’s gravitas shines brilliantly on the tender, tear-inducing ballad “Sad Bag.” As you can guess, Phil Spector/Jerry Leiber’s “Spanish Harlem” blossoms into a paragon of Latin pop effervescence, an instant mood-elevator, in Humphrey and company’s hands. My favorite cut on Flute-In, “Don’t Knock My Funk” is a slinky, understated funk workout that unexpectedly bears traces of Frank Zappa’s mid-’70s output (thanks especially to vibraphonist Devens), albeit in a less manic manner than the Mothers Of Invention leader’s groups. The LP concludes with “Journey To Morocco,” gracefully undulating jazz hinting at tropical paradise, and the elegant joy-bringer “Set Us Free,” a funky soul jazz number written by the always provocative Eddie Harris, from 1971’s Second Movement LP with Les McCann.
In Jazz Times, critic Michael J. West wrote, “Even more than Hubert Laws, Bobbi Humphrey did for the flute what Roy Ayers did for the vibraphone. That is, she made it a vehicle for dark and dirty funk-soul jazz.” True, but she also brought a delightful lightness to these styles, as Flute-In definitively proves. -Buckley Mayfield
Located in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood, Jive Time is always looking to buy your unwanted records (provided they are in good condition) or offer credit for trade. We also buy record collections.
