Two Trumpets at the Peak of Their Powers
Hubbard and Shaw push each other across some genuinely sharp, inventive playing that neither might have reached alone.
Double Take catches two trumpet masters in their prime, trading solos and challenging each other across some of the sharpest bebop and post-bop terrain. Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw were not new partners—they'd crossed paths before—but this session has an edge to it, a sense of friendly competition that keeps both players honest. The rhythm section of Cecil McBee, Carl Allen, and Mulgrew Miller anchors everything without fussing; Kenny Garrett adds alto saxophone that both complements and provokes the front line. The playing is lean and direct, no excess, no trying too hard to prove something. Hubbard's technical command is obvious from the first phrase—his range wider, his articulation cleaner—but Shaw refuses to be overshadowed. He plays more harmonically adventurous lines, chords implied in single notes, choices that make you listen twice. The AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow gave it 4.5 stars and nailed it: both are masters, but they don't play like masters trying to sound impressive. They play like people who belong in the room together.
For Hubbard, this was a return to Blue Note after two decades away since The Night of the Cookers (1965). That's a long gap, and you might wonder if he had anything left to prove. He did. This album debuted on the Billboard jazz chart and spent twelve weeks there, peaking at number nineteen—solid commercial recognition in an era when jazz radio still mattered. The session came together in November 1985, a moment when both men could play their instruments without thinking about it, pure reflex and taste.
If you're coming to Hubbard's catalog, this isn't where you start—that's better served by his earlier Blue Note records or his electric work with Herbie Hancock. But if you know his playing already, Double Take shows why he remained a first-call trumpet player well into middle age. The album was successful enough to spawn a sequel, The Eternal Triangle (1987), and both were later combined into a double-CD retrospective in 1995.
Who's playing
Cecil McBeebass
Mulgrew Millerpiano
Kenny Garrettalto saxophone, flute
Freddie Hubbardflugelhorn, trumpet
Woody Shawtrumpet
Carl Allendrums
Where next?
More by Woody Shaw
All 36 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
