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R.I.P. Freddie Hubbard


Michael Weiss

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There was a resurgence of recording activity in the 80s on the Contemporary label and Freddie was part of several of the sessions. I remember that one was a Joe Farrell record (can't remember what it was called) that Freddie just plays his ass off on. There's a story in the liner notes that he had just come from having a root canal done to the session!!!!

I'd also like to mention that there were some mid 70s Milestone releases that Freddie is on that are pretty good:

McCoy Tyner - 4x4 (one side)

McCoy Tyner - Together

I quite enjoy these albums, and Freddie's contributions to them...

bigtiny

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The Atlantics are underrated. 'Sing Me a Song of Songmy' is patchy (it was an experiment which the Hubbard group was only one element) and 'A Soul Experiment' is a waste, but 'Backlash', 'High Blues Pressure' and 'The Black Angel' are all terrific.

Two tracks on High Blues Pressure contain IMO Freddie's most adventurous compositions: "For B.P." and "True Colors."

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There was a resurgence of recording activity in the 80s on the Contemporary label and Freddie was part of several of the sessions. I remember that one was a Joe Farrell record (can't remember what it was called) that Freddie just plays his ass off on. There's a story in the liner notes that he had just come from having a root canal done to the session!!!!

bigtiny

Sonic Text

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I saw Freddie several times in the 1970s. The most unusual was at Bunky's, a club in Madison, Wisconsin, which had national jazz acts in the 1977-80 period. Freddie had just recorded one of his most commercialized albums, and most of the concert was a precursor to smooth jazz. He played flugelhorn, very simply, on some rudimentary light funk ditties, as he danced around half-heartedly onstage. Some people liked it--they probably spent their weekends at the disco. However, from the first song on, loud requests for songs from his Blue Note and Atlantic albums rained down from the increasingly unhappy majority of the audience. Freddie said between songs, "hey, I have to play this stuff, my record company says I have to."

Finally, toward the end of the evening, he played an uptempo "Impressions". His rhythm section burned and Freddie was in his full glory, soloing in spectacular fashion. The audience erupted with loud clapping and screaming during and after the performance. Freddie looked puzzled, and said "everybody wants to hear bebop" as he shook his head. Then it was back to the simple light funk for the rest of the evening.

Another time I saw him in a concert hall setting, as he followed Johnny Griffin and Dexter Gordon. The audience had loved the tenor sax players. Freddie came out with a fusion group, which was not one of the genre's real winners. The audience was vocal in its disapproval at first. Freddie said, "hey, Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin live in Europe! I have to live here in America!" By the end of the set, Freddie's solos had won the crowd over. I do remember a member of Freddie's band, a small, thin, heavily bearded guy playing some annoying electric bass solos in that set, which struck me as fusion at its obnoxious worst--fast playing with little emotional connection to anything. I fervently hoped to never hear him again. I was surprised to later read that he had married Joni Mitchell and was producing her albums--Larry Klein.

I saw Freddie at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach in 1980, and from the first note it was incredible. He was really "on" that night, and I have rarely heard such spectacular playing by anyone over two sets. He was really something when he had the musical context right and was motivated to play consistently well.

I also saw him with VSOP (Hubbard, Shorter, Hancock, Carter, Tony Williams) in 1977. We were all struck by how Shorter, Hancock and Carter seemed to be disinterested in what they were doing, while Hubbard and Tony Williams were on fire for the entire evening.

Having heard Hargrove, Blanchard, Roney, Douglas, Pelt, in the past two years, I have to say that in live performance, none of them hit the heights that Freddie hit when he was really "on", in live performance in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Edited by Hot Ptah
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Here is a site with a pretty complete Freddie Hubbard discography.

http://home.ica.net/~blooms/hubbardhome.html

I was surprised to find that there is a Japanese release (Gleam) that features what appears to be the band he had when I saw him for the first time in 1975.

I believe I saw him a total of eight times over the years, the last in 1992, just before his chops problems emerged. The majority of these concerts were at the Caravan of Dreams, where all of his appearances were Freddie as the sole horn player, with a fine back-up group (the likes of Larry Willis, Idris Mohammed, Walter Booker...)

On many of those occasions, he played the trumpet better than anyone I've ever heard in person.

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I´ll miss him very much.

His music meant so much to me. One of the very greatest trumpet players ever. I was aware his active period has been over for quite some time, but still I was happy he´s alive. Earlier that year Johnny Griffin, now Freddie Hubbard, last year Jackie McLean. So many greats that left us...

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Just spinning "Sweet Return" 1983 Atlantic amongst other Hub tones tonight. Really not at all bad with Lew Tabackin, Roy Haynes, Joanne Brackeen and Eddie Gomez.

Actually, this is a pretty good album....its just the damned overused reverb that makes it difficult to listen to....the playing is excellent though....

bigtiny

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I was hanging with my best buddy in Iowa City (Miles251, who plays trumpet) when we heard about Freddie's passing on Sunday morning. The weird thing is we were also by chance together when we heard about Miles' passing (and we don't see each other all that often-should we stop hanging out?).

Anyway, we spun some Freddie just like we spun some Miles (also Kenny Dorham, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Douglas and others). Much love for Freddie.

Edited by Free For All
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hot patah: that is so cool you saw a fusion freddie concert. I have his album MISTRAL, and it is a defining lp of the genre: to hear seasonsoned beboppers freddie hubbard + art pepper in a pure-fusion-based-context, is very rewarding, and gives a sense of complete legitimicy to the style of the record

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In todays world 70 is very young to be dead, im only 11 years away from that. That said, I first discovered freddie and the cut Little Sunflower on the LP Backlash while in high school. Way to many favorite LP/CD's to list here. See ya, got to put Ready For Freddie on the CD Player..............

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Just spinning "Sweet Return" 1983 Atlantic amongst other Hub tones tonight. Really not at all bad with Lew Tabackin, Roy Haynes, Joanne Brackeen and Eddie Gomez.

Actually, this is a pretty good album....its just the damned overused reverb that makes it difficult to listen to....the playing is excellent though....

bigtiny

It's a good album (no need for qualifiers), as is Bolivia.

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I'll be devoting my show to Freddie on Friday night, Janaury 2nd, 8p-midnight.

Go to: www.wgbh.org/jazz and clock on "Listen Live"

In addition to his recordings as leader I will be playing Freddie as a sideman with the likes of Wes, Jackie Mac, Tina, Coltrane, Persip, Ervin, Cables, Henderson, JJ, Slide, Quincy and lots more. What an incredible career!

Thank you for the music, Freddie!

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I was hanging with my best buddy in Iowa City (Miles251, who plays trumpet) when we heard about Freddie's passing on Sunday morning. The weird thing is we were also by chance together when we heard about Miles' passing (and we don't see each other all that often-should we stop hanging out?).

Very odd now that I think about it.... but the hang must never stop!

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In addition to his recordings as leader I will be playing Freddie as a sideman with the likes of Wes, Jackie Mac, Tina, Coltrane, Persip, Ervin, Cables, Henderson, JJ, Slide, Quincy and lots more. What an incredible career!

Thank you for the music, Freddie!

That session with Wes Montgomery is all kindsa sweet!

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Just was sent this from Werner, but it's a reproduction from All About Jazz.

R.I.P Freddie

Article Courtesy AllAboutJazz.com

Meet Freddie Hubbard

By Craig Jolley

This article was originally published in May 2001.

New Colors (Hip Bop Records), new CD

I met David Weiss a couple of years ago. He's from North Texas State. He had a rehearsal band [New Jazz Composers Octet] in New York, and he had been writing out a lot of my compositions and arranging them. He said he'd like to get together and have me play some of my material with the group. At first it was only supposed to be a one-time thing, but we're going to be working together the next couple of years until I get back strong again on my horn. They appreciate my music and give it a good feeling like when I was playing with Elvin Jones. They inspired me to start back playing again. This is an opportunity to let some of the more serious kids play this music and have it arranged for them. Craig Handy and I did a record with Betty Carter (Droppin' Things, Verve 1990) years ago. I always liked his playing. Same with Joe Chambers--he had played some of these songs with me before. I brought in Kenny Garrett and Javon Jackson as guest soloists. Those are some of the musicians I really enjoy playing with. They've played in my previous bands, they know me, and they know my style. They came in and helped me out quite a bit. I'm very happy to have made this CD.

New Jazz Composers Octet Tour

We start in New York at the Iridium May 8-13. Then we go to Annapolis, Maryland; Arlington, Virginia; Scullers in Boston; Philadelphia; a couple more things. We're gonna make the Berlin Festival this year, but I'm not going to play the West Coast yet. We'll be playing the songs on the CD and some of my other tunes David, Duane Burno and Xavier Davis have arranged. With all the horns you can hear more color. When I originally recorded some of these tunes the music went by so fast people didn't get a chance to hear them. I have a lot of songs people have never heard that will sound good with eight pieces.

Lip problems:

I busted my chops. I had to go back to square one after 30-40 years of playing. I was out there trying to be Coltrane--take thirty choruses. I was working all the time, and I didn't warm up. If you don't start off getting the blood flowing later on you're chops get weaker. It wasn't from playing that commercial stuff--it was from hard-core improvising. What made my style different was a whole lot of jumps, strenuous ideas. That's what makes jazz chops different from classical chops--at any moment you may have to change your embouchure [the position of the lips when they touch the mouthpiece]. I gave it everything I had. You have to be ready for that style. It was really bad--I didn't know if I was gonna play again. I can still play, but I can't hold long tones--that's something I never had trouble with. I didn't realize there were so many muscles in the embouchure, about 120. When you're young you don't even think about it. You get a lot of bad habits--you think that's the hip way to do it, but it's tearing your chops down.

Comeback

“I can't play what I used to play, but that's not the point. Let Jon Faddis and those guys hit those high notes--that's their thing. Now I play better in the middle register. I have more ideas, and it's better than half-hitting it.”

I thank the Creator. He enabled me to attempt to come back. I have to practice, get the feeling, get the blood flowing again. If you don't do that you don't get back. I came back too soon before (in '94) when I had trouble with my chops. I'm playing the flugelhorn now because the trumpet would be too hard. Instead of playing all that hard stuff I'm gonna to play some ballads. Playing flugel is kind of messing up my chops in itself--I eventually want to get back to playing the trumpet. I can't play what I used to play, but that's not the point. Let Jon Faddis and those guys hit those high notes--that's their thing. Now I play better in the middle register. I have more ideas, and it's better than half-hitting it. It'll take another year to come back strong again. The trumpet is not like a piano or a saxophone. If you lay off it you're back to zero. I've still got a lot of stuff I want to play. I can play it on the piano--that's where I get a lot of my ideas--like [sings fast] dah-doo-dah-didli-ah-dit...bah-booo-dle-ootie...doo-deee-doo-dooodle-eedle-doodle-at...dee-dat...deee-dle-ootie. Those kinds of runs are very difficult to execute. It's the way you accent those things. I got that from playing with Sonny Rollins and Philly Joe Jones. I want to bring some that back.

Louis Armstrong

He had that funny sound. I didn't dig it when I first heard it, that Dixieland. But if you listen to him for a while he had that feeling. He didn't have that execution like Dizzy Gillespie.

Clifford Brown

When I was starting out I tried to sound like him. His execution thing and his phrasing were out of the book--Miles thought he sounded stiff. He gave me a lot of ideas. He could do it all--that style was the way I wanted to play. I was still in Indianapolis so I never got to hear him in person. When he died I cried like a baby. He was only 25 years old, and he never got his due. I've got my reward--now I've got to give some back.

Miles Davis

I used to try to play like him too--those ballads. One night he heard me at Birdland. He was sitting on the side of the stage. I had my eyes closed, and I was playing some of his licks. I looked down and saw him, and I almost passed out. When I got off he said, “Why don't you play some of your own stuff?” After that I stopped copying people. Miles and Dizzy used to tell me I played too hard and too long. I should warm up before I played. Miles might take an hour before he started. It would take him that long to get his embouchure set, but it came out pure and clean.

Lee Morgan

Yeah, I was close to that crazy ___. He and I were the Young Turks at that time. He was a cocky little young cat, and he was great, exciting, spirited. He was the only cat that could frighten me. He got messed up.

Maynard Ferguson

I used to go see that guy play at Birdland. He used to play those high C's every night. Remember when Maynard had lip trouble? He went over to England to get straightened out. He's still going strong.

Wynton Marsalis:

I didn't know it at the time [late 70's], but he was going to school in New York. He came to my dressing room and played all of my licks back to me, some I'd forgotten. I said, “Where did you learn to play all that?” He said, “It's all your stuff.” He's the only one I've heard who could play some of the stuff on my records. I dig that lip thing he can do--(sings) yaw-yaw-ya-yaw-yaw. He's a technician, but he's stiff--I guess he can play that way if he wants to. We did a big band thing at Carnegie Hall together.

Richard Davis:

I love to play with Richard--he's fantastic. I think he's teaching now. He and I made a record [Out to Lunch, Blue Note, 1964] with Eric Dolphy that was kind of advanced. That free music is not the feeling right now.

Current favorites

I like Tom Harrell--he's a nice guy. He wakes me up--he and Roy Hargrove. You think Roy sounds like me? Maybe that's the reason I like him! I like this guy Christian McBride and Benny Green--they worked with me. I love Bobby Watson--I heard him last time I was in New York. They're keeping it going.

Favorite records

One of my first records, Ready for Freddie (Blue Note, 1961). I had full control over it. That and Red Clay (CTI, 1970) were my best playing straight up. When it comes to more commercial stuff, First Light (CTI, 1971). It has some nice arrangements, and I won a Grammy. I've met all kinds of people, old and young, that like that record. I played it with feeling. Melody Maker did a discography on me. Check this out--I've made 300 records. I started looking into it, and I found some money from these companies.

Rap

I'm entertaining ideas about doing it after I get better on my horn. Those rap cats have some crazy meters. I'll have to give it some serious thought before I do it.

Jazz education:

I have students come over in the evenings. They want to play some of the fast stuff I used to play--they're in a hurry. These kids coming out of school now, they have the correct embouchure, but they don't have the strength or the time. It's hard to play the trumpet with feeling. Like Chuck Mangione--he doesn't play loud or hard, but he has that feeling. He's not trying to be hip. I used to go over to everybody's house and say, “Teach me this, teach me that.” They'd show me (They'd play it on the horn.), but they didn't teach me how to execute it. They didn't take time to teach me to play it right. We used to go on the road and play with Art Blakey, Count Basie, Horace Silver in the 60's and 70's. I used to sit in with bands that were established. I learned the backgrounds, everything. It's not like that now--it's more like a vacuum.

Wrap up:

I'm glad you're doing this for the Internet so people can find out about me. I have a computer now. My wife's using it to write a book. I'm 63. I don't feel like it, and I don't look like it. I still have a lot in me. Since I moved to California I haven't wanted to work much. I got discouraged for a while. I still don't want to work that hard, but if I can arrange to work about six months a year that's what I'll do. I hear all these kids playing my ideas on the radio. Sometimes I have to stop and say, “Is that me?” It feels good to hear it, but people think the kids started it. Tell the young boys to look out--Freddie Hubbard's coming back!

All material copyright © 2009 All About Jazz and contributing writers. All rights reserved.

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Jazz From Studio Four

Friday, Jan 2, 8pm–midnight, WGBH 89.7, Boston

REMEMBERING FREDDIE HUBBARD (b. April 7, 1938 / d. December 29, 2008)

Listed by artist: selection, album (label)

8:00pm

THEME: HORACE PARLAN QUINTET: Wadin', Speakin' My Piece (Blue Note)

8:05pm

Freddie Hubbard: Open Sesame, Open Sesame (Blue Note)

Freddie Hubbard: Topsy, Topsy-Standard Book (Alfa Jazz)

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Blue Moon, 3 Blind Mice, Volme 1 (Blue Note)

8:27pm

Wes Montgomery; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Bock To Bock, Fingerpickin' (Pacific Jazz)

John Coltrane; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Dahomey Dance, Ole Coltrane (Atlantic)

8:54pm

Freddie Hubbard: Blues For Miles (Hip-Hop Bop), Blues for Miles (Evidence)

Dexter Gordon; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Society Red, Dexter Gordon: The Classic Blue Note Recordings (Blue Note)

9:17pm

Slide Hampton; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Hi-Fly, Sister Salvation (Atlantic)

Joe Henderson; featuring Freddie Hubbard: A Shade of Jade, Joe Henderson Big Band (Verve)

Booker Ervin; featuring Freddie Hubbard: L.A. After Dark, Booker 'n Brass (Pacific Jazz)

Quincy Jones; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Robot Portrait, Quintessence (Impulse)

9:47pm

Freddie Hubbard: High Blues Pressure, High Blues Pressure (Atlantic)

Wayne Shorter; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Black Orpheus, Wayning Moments (Koch/Vee Jay)

Kirk Lightsey; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Gibralter, Temptation (Timeless)

10:12pm

Freddie Hubbard: Lament For Booker, Hub Tones (Blue Note)

Freddie Hubbard: God Bless the Child, Bolivia (MusicMasters)

Freddie Hubbard: Caravan, The Artistry of Freddie hubbard (Impulse)

10:40pm

Oliver Nelson; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Yearnin', The Blues and The Abstract Truth (Impulse)

Freddie Hubbard: Body and Soul; Thermo; i Got It Bad, The Body & The Soul (Impulse)

11:03pm

Bill Evans; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Interplay, Interplay (Riverside)

Jackie McLean; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Blues Function, Bluesnik (Blue Note)

Jimmy Heath; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Gemini, Triple Threat (Riverside)

11:28pm

Carl Allen; featuring Freddie Hubbard: InThe Still of The night`Piccadilly Square, Timeless

George Cables; featuring Freddie Hubbard: Inner Glow, Cables Vision (Contemporary)

Freddie Hubbard: I Love You, Above & Beyond (Metropolitan Records)

Freddie Hubbard: Cry Me Not, Hub Cap (Blue)

11:54pm

Freddie Hubbard: One Mint Julep, Open Sesame (Blue Note)

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Herbie Hancock Statement On The Passing Of Freddie Hubbard

Freddie Hubbard was, I believe, the greatest jazz trumpet stylists of my generation. His influence is still being felt in the sound of many young trumpeters today. His warm tone and formidable technique will be considered marvels well into the future.

Personally, I was so fortunate in that Freddie played on my very first album as a leader "Takin' Off". He was exactly the person I wanted and his contribution was groundbreaking. On a tune called "One Finger Snap" on a subsequent album of mine, his beginning improvised solo line worked so seamlessly that it became a kind of generic "melody" that most musicians still believe was the composed melody, when in fact it was not.

He and I crossed paths musically in several albums. In the group VSOP he was a founding member who's artistry helped propel that project, which began as a one time tour, to a decade of memorable musical inspirational moments for me.

His legacy is secure in that he played a seminal role of the shaping of the evolution of America's foremost contribution to the musical arts, jazz.

Herbie Hancock

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FREDDIE HUBBARD

hubbbard4.jpg

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.

180px-Freddie_Hubbard_1976.jpg

Freddie Hubbard will be remembered, in my opinion, for his great Blue Note albums from the 1960s

Freddie Hubbard - Jazz Trumpet Player

Keep swinging

Durium

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