Freddie fusion is frankly a difficult proposition for a lot of jazz fans, and this three-album-on-two CD-set may make the idea no easier. The music covers the 1974-1976 period, by which time, the crackling acoustic bop of the trumpeter's Blue Note days was far behind and in its stead came a polychrome electric backdrop. With Rhodes, synthesizer and guitar all prominent, the influence of Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire et al was writ large yet regardless of any perceivable debt to populism, the soloing was of a quality that even the most hateful of haters would have to acknowledge. Hub's improvisations on pieces such as ‘Baraka Sasa’ from High Energy, arguably the pick of the three albums, are rip-roaring. Generally speaking, it could be said that the tonal palette got glossier and more produced (overproduced, even) by the time the trumpeter recorded Windjammer, and the decision to reprise Morris Albert's irredeemably loathsome ‘Feelings’ makes it hard to defend our hero against accusations of poor taste if not a shameless sacrifice of artistic integrity. With keyboardist Bob James in the producer's chair, the overall sound is a lush one, but there is sufficient funkiness cutting through the orchestrations to satisfy anybody who feared Hubbard had sold his soul in exchange for Faustian FM airplay. Taken together, the three albums show that the trumpeter was intent on moving with the times, and according to James, he was caught between a desire for chart success and a need for credibility, which may explain the patchy nature of the last album of this package. Nonetheless, the imprint of a superior improviser, one of the great brass stylists in jazz history, is loud and clear to all with open ears.