Freddie Hubbard

One of the great jazz trumpeters of all time, Freddie Hubbard formed his sound out of the Clifford Brown/Lee Morgan tradition, and by the early '70s was immediately distinctive and the pacesetter in jazz.

On Hub Cap, his third effort as a leader, Freddie Hubbard sticks to the tried-and-true hard bop formula, which is something of a mixed blessing. There's no question that much of this music is enjoyable, but it's not quite up to the standards of its two predecessors…

Recorded in 1982 by Jeffrey Weber and arranger Allyn Ferguson, this live to two-track digital set showcases Freddie Hubbard in the company of two large bands - one a brass group, the other a string orchestra - both of which feature the same rhythm section. Ferguson wrote three tunes for the session, including the funky "Hubbard's Cupboard" and "Two Moods for Freddie" (which shifts gears from elegant and nocturnal to finger-popping contemporary electric jazz in the course of a couple of minutes); this pair opens and closes the album. The cover of Joe Zawinul's "Birdland" is reverent but swinging, and Hubbard's lone composition here, "Bridgitte," is a beautiful ballad that showcases the strings and Dan Ferguson's sweetly singing electric guitar and opens up into a midtempo groover…

Here are assembled five classic albums from the narrow band of just a few years, an indication of the amazing prolific talents. There is Open Sesame, originally released in 1960; Goin' Up (1961); Hub Cap (1961); Ready for Freddie (1962); Hub-Tones (1963). The list of accompanying musicians is veritably Olympian - Herbie Hancock, Cedar Walton and McCoy Tyner on various pianos, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Hank Mobley on tenor sax, Paul Chambers on bass and so on.

It was the producer's idea that Freddie Hubbard play all of the nine standards on this CD with a mute in his trumpet. Hubbard was not happy with the restriction, but does his best on the quartet/quintet session with pianist Benny Green, bassist Rufus Reid, drummer Carl Allen and, on three numbers, altoist Kenny Garrett. While it is interesting to hear Freddie Hubbard tackle such material as "Topsy," "As Time Goes By," "Cherokee" and "Love Me or Leave Me," the music is often more mellow than one might hope, even when uptempo.

In the Altonaer Fabrik in 1986, the master trumpeter Freddie Hubbard was a guest in the trio of one of the most important pianists of contemporary jazz: McCoy Tyner, whose extremely powerful attack always added percussive power of the most energetic kind to his virtuoso playing. McCoy Tyner died in March 2020, the recording from 1986 (he was 58 years old at the time) show him at the height of the unmistakable jazz expression that defined him. His piano and the enormous radiance of the Hubbard trumpet (born in the same year as Tyner in 1938, but died in 2008) are the outstanding protagonists. But the recording also features bassist Avery Sharpe, born in 1954 and with excellent acoustic and electrical credentials, as well as Louis Hayes, still today the most indestructible of all modern drummers at well over 80 years of age. Together they refine the nine titles of this two-hour concert on this truly remarkable evening of music!