Talk about a monster of a hard bop album. Art Blakey's 1964 masterpiece Free For All just might be the the quintessential hard bop album."Free For All" the title track is not only "Hard" it's Heavy. I am talking about heavy in the most powerful sense.
Saxophonist Wayne Shorter's composition is seriously in your face, it will nearly take your breath away, it plays like a run away freight train.
In fact, listening to my vintage vinyl copy of the album, one notices the recording equipment of the day, barely can take the pounding of the sextet.
Blakey's drums and Cedar Walton's piano sets the brisk tempo, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Shorter on tenor sax, and Curtis Fuller on trombone blow up a hurricane playing the hell out of their instruments.
Shorters "Hammerhead" is a bluesy soul jazz work, that offers fine solos from Fuller and Hubbard. Hubbard's "Core" A tribute to the Congress of Racial Equality, is also a powerful vehicle for the band to get heavy.
Finally Pianist Clare Fischer's "Pensativa" was brought to the session by Freddie Hubbard, He also arranged the track for the album. The slightly down tempo number turns out to be the perfect way to end this aptly titled powerhouse, with its laid back island-rhythm style.
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