Keep (it) Swinging: Freddie Hubbard

Freddie Hubbard - Jazztrompettist (Nederlands) Freddie Hubbard - Jazz Trumpet Player(English)
(To a Freddie Hubbard Discography.)
FREDDIE HUBBARD - Jazz Trumpet Player Passed Away.
Hans Koert
Last week the great trumpet player Freddie Hubbard passed away at the Sherman Oaks Hospital in California. We knew about his bad health, the problems he had during the last decade to play his instrument; last month he was brought to hospital because of a heart attack. He was 70 years old when he died............. I was surprised to read that he was only 70 years of age when he passed away. I guess that's because he just started to record in 1960 as a leader and, except for some records as a side man (with the Montgomery Brothers and Five Others (Buddy, Wes and Monk Montgomery; John Coltrane, Slide Hampton and Eric Dolphy)) he didn't record in the 1950s, the period the hard bop developed into the major jazz style of the post bop period.

In 1960 he started to make his first own recording, the great album Open Sesame, one of my favourites, which put him in the spotlights....... Listen to Open Sesame with youngster Tina Brooks, and "old hand" piano player McCoy Tyner.

During the 1960s he became one of the major Blue Note artist that recorded dozens of albums, under his own name or as side man, he performed in the discussed Ornette Coleman Atlantic album Free Jazz and with groups like Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. When you have a look at his discography it seems as if he has been playing in all kinds of groups in all kind of styles, from soul up to hard bop and pop to avant garde jazz.

When his first album was released in 1960, Open Sesame, the jazz scene was surprised. His tone was warm and fresh and he sounded great in ballads like But Beautiful. Rumours said that the new Clifford Brown was born. (Clifford Brown had passed away in 1956 in a road accident 25 years old). On the cover a young fresh Freddie Hubbard photo, like a young 1920s Louis Armstrong, made by Blue Note co-founder Francis Wolff, suggests that a new star is born. It feels to me as the flying start of Roy Hargrove in the late 1980s with his first album Diamond in the Rough. (Novus 3082) and the booming career in the 1990s up to now, although it feels hard, even for Roy, to keep his name into the spot lights.
In the 1970s Freddie Hubbard was contracted by Columbia Records, who loved to make him a star like Miles Davis was a decade earlier. From this period are the recordings and tours by the V.S.O.P. band, featuring great names like Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams and of course Freddie Hubbard. He became a rich man, smelled the money, moved to California, bought a house in Beverley Hills and had airs. When Columbia gave me money, I moved to L.A., bought my house, cars, a pool. But then I started acting weird, he said in an interview later. Late 1970s the Columbia contract stopped. He was still the star, but his music wasn't inspiring anymore, he played the same licks and the same high notes each concert. I found a fragment from the early 1980s with two of my favourite musicians, NHØP (= Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen) and Philip Catherine playing the tunes Hubtones and Thermo.

In the early 1990s he got terrible problems with his lips, damaged because he let things slide, no more practicing, no warming up before the show, drugs and excessive drinking did do the rest. I must have some fragments somewhere on video tape or DVD, I tried to find it, with a Freddie Hubbard over the hill - maybe I threw it away - maybe that's the best thing to do ...... During the last years he was recording again with the New Jazz Composers Octet; I do have the album New Colors from 2001 - a moderate album, with a fallen star.

Freddie Hubbard will be remembered for his great albums from the 1960s and I love to share with you a fragment from 1990 where you can listen to Round About Midnight, played in Japan at the Blue Note by Freddie Hubbard on muted trumpet, Don Branden tenor saxophone, Benny Green at the piano, Jeff Chembers on bass and Carl Allen on drums.

Hans Koert - keepswinging@live.nl

My Hub-Tones:

Freddie Hubbard played on hundreds of recordings. The next list are all Freddie Hubbard records in my collection; as a leader or as a soloist or sideman.
count basie/kansas city 7 = art blakey jazz messengers/mosaic = art blakey/buhaimna's delight = art blakey jazz messengers/caravan = art blakey jazz messengers/free for all = blue note/a story of modern jazz (2) = blue 45s/the ultimate jukebox = blue note/perfect takes = tina brooks/true blue = jimmy cobb/the session = ornette coleman/free jazz = john coltrane/the atlantic records - 6 (africa/brass) - 7 (alternative takes) = eric dolphy/out to lunch = lou donaldson/lush life = kenny drew/undercurrent = dexter gordon/doin' allright = dexter gordon/soy califa ea (2) = dexter gordon/ the best ballads = dexter gordon/clubhouse = dexter gordon/the complete prestige recordings/CD 9-10 (2) = dexter gordon/the other side of round midnight = dexter gordon/round midnight (soundtrack) = herbie hancock/takin' off = herbie hancock/empyrean isles = herbie hancock/maiden voyage = herbie hancock/speak like a child = joe henderson/big band = wayne shorter/feat. freddie hubbard and eddie higgins (=wayning momento plus) = andrew hill/compulsion = hip jazz-bop/wealth is overrated = freddie hubbard/new colors = freddie hubbard/blue note re-issue series (2) = freddie hubbard/hub cap = freddie hubbard/ready for freddie = freddie hubbard/here to stay = freddie hubbard/skylark = freddie hubbard/breaking point = freddie hubbard/night of the cookers (2) = freddie hubbard/blue spirits - freddie hubbard/red clay = freddie hubbard/outpost = benny golson-freddie hubbard-woody shaw-kenny barron-cecil mcbee-ben riley/time speaks = freddie hubbard/recorded october 24th 1991 warshaw poland = freddie hubbard/open sesame = freddie hubbard/hub-tones = bobby hutcherson/dialogue = hank mobley/roll call = hank mobley/turnaround = hank mobley/straight no filter = wes montgomery/fingerpickin' = duke pearson/sweet honey bee = prestige/original jazz classics sampler = riverside/original jazz classics sampler = riverside/giants of jazz (2) = wayne shorter/the soothsayer = wayne shorter/speak no evil = wayne shorter/the all seeing eye
( To the start)

FREDDIE HUBBARD DISCOGRAPHY:
An extensive FREDDIE HUBBARD DISCOGRAPHY is available on the internet, so ...... Have a look yourself.

Keep swinging

Hans Koert

keepswinging@live.nl