AotW April 22-28: Freddie Hubbard - Open Sesame

[Kyo]

Since there are no future AOTW posters announced right now I figured I'd just

go ahead and suggest an album myself. Yes, just like that!

Freddie Hubbard Quintet

Freddie Hubbard (tp) Tina Brooks (ts) McCoy Tyner (p) Sam Jones (b) Clifford Jarvis (d)

Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, June 19, 1960

1. Open Sesame

2. But Beautiful

3. Gypsy Blue

4. All Or Nothing At All

5. One Mint Julep

6. Hub's Nub

7. Open Sesame (alternate take)

8. Gypsy Blue (alternate take)

None of Freddie Hubbard's albums have been named Album of

the Week before and his debut album is still one of my favorites.

This is the album that turned me onto Tina Brooks who not only

contributed many fine solos but more importantly two excellent

tunes that really impressed me the first time I heard them.

Alfred Lion must've though the same as Brooks, Hubbard and Sam

Jones were back in the studio just six days later recording True Blue -

a Tina Brooks album that would actually be issued for once.

This must've been recorded right around the time that McCoy Tyner

joined Coltrane's quartet, just a few months after his stint with the Farmer/

Golson Jazztet. For me it's always interesting to hear him at this time.

Edited April 22, 2007 by Kyo

[BruceH]

Wonderful choice!

It isn't often that one of my favorite albums is chosen for AOTW. I've long thought of this as sort of a partial extra Tina Brooks album thanks to his playing and TWO compositions that kick off the album. One of Hubbards' best!

[Big Al]

I could listen to this and its companion, Tina Brooks TRUE BLUE, back-to-back for hours at a time and not get tired of them. In fact, I think I'll put 'em on now!

[jlhoots]

Excellent one.

[etherbored]

here's an interesting trivial aside; everyone's favorite japanese store owner, hiroshi tanno, once owned a jazz kissaten (a jazz coffee shop) in the late 70's / early 80's named 'sesamie' in homage to this wonderful recording.

Edited April 23, 2007 by etherbored

[Big Al]

I've been listening to this again today, and I love the harmonies played by Freddie & Tina, especially on "Hub's Nub." Pity they didn't make more albums together.

[mikeweil]

I remember a Hubbard quote in the liner of the Brooks Mosaic: "Tina made my first album sound beautiful" or something like that.

True.

Will put it on the playing pile for tomorrow.

[clifford_thornton]

Great one that I haven't spun in some time. Will give it a drop when I get home.

[ep1str0phy]

I think it's one of Freddie's most enjoyable dates. And Clifford Jarvis, in and out of the Ra stable, is always a good thing.

[clifford_thornton]

Any Clifford is good to have around!

[Guy Berger]

This is a nice date... nothing earthshaking, but nice.

Guy

[JohnS]

Thanks for posting Kyo, I was beginning to think aotw had finally run out of steam.

A fine record, and the first aotw Hubbard as far as I can see. This was one of those that was hard to find in the vinyl era and was on my wants list for years before I found one.

Concur about Clifford Jarvis.

[skeith]

I like this one a lot. Amazing for a debut release and just very good playing and compositions.

[Kyo]

Thanks for posting Kyo, I was beginning to think aotw had finally run out of steam.

I didn't realize there were no more volunteers listed for AotW nominations.

I'd gladly pick an album again anytime, let's just hope I'm not the only one.

A fine record, and the first aotw Hubbard as far as I can see.

One of the reasons why I picked it!

[paul secor]

here's an interesting trivial aside; everyone's favorite japanese store owner, hiroshi tanno, once owned a jazz kissaten (a jazz coffee shop) in the late 70's / early 80's named 'sesamie' in homage to this wonderful recording.

Are there still jazz coffee shops in Japan? Wish they existed in the U.S.

[Soul Stream]

I haven't listened to this one all that much. Not sure if the compositions really hit me all that hard to be honest. I'll have to go back and listen. Nice choice for sure though...

[Soulstation1]

Fav cut off this CD?

[Big Al]

Fav cut off this CD?

Hub's Nub. Love humming along with the head on that one!

[ep1str0phy]

Any Clifford is good to have around!

-On the whole Open Sesame is just OK thing--Hubbard didn't have the most consistent run as a leader on Blue Note (one or two near-classics sprinkled in--Breaking Point, I think--with some very classic sideman appearances), and set next to some of the more (inexplicably) celebrated sides, like Hub-Tones (which, IMO, gets pretty boring after the first couple of tracks), it's really great. And, for what this music is, that band really is killer.

Edited April 24, 2007 by ep1str0phy

[clifford_thornton]

Two words: Tina Brooks.

[Big Al]

Any Clifford is good to have around!

-On the whole Open Sesame is just OK thing--Hubbard didn't have the most consistent run as a leader on Blue Note (one or two near-classics sprinkled in--Breaking Point, I think--with some very classic sideman appearances), and set next to some of the more (inexplicably) celebrated sides, like Hub-Tones (which, IMO, gets pretty boring after the first couple of tracks), it's really great. And, for what this music is, that band really is killer.

I gotta respectfully disagree with you on a number of points:

1) I think Hubbard's albums as a leader showed remarkable consistency in that he never stayed in one place for very long. Just about every album has a different instrumental lineup;

2) I think Breaking Point is Hubbard's most unlistenable album

3) I love Hub-Tones from beginning to end

HOWEVER, I completely agree that this is/was a killer band! Pity his wandering muse didn't allow him to record more with Brooks.

Edited April 25, 2007 by Big Al

[ep1str0phy]

Maybe it's just a difference in listener perspectives. Freddie certainly didn't limit himself, but I just feel as if the peaks come a lot rarer on his solo discs--versus his sideman work with, for example, the Miles crowd, which is almost uniformly brilliant (from my perspective).

As for Breaking Point--that's a contentious issue, and it's certainly the least "straight-ahead" of all of Freddie's Blue Notes. Part of what interests me is that it doesn't always feel like Freddie's album--maybe more like a run-through for a never-happened Joe Chambers side. Perhaps Messengers-level hard bop was Freddie's strong suit (when he was at his strongest, that is), but I've always loved it when he struggled into alien contexts. (Case in point: Dialogue.)

Honestly, though, nothing gets to me like the Breaking Point version of "Mirrors" and, for that part of Hub-Tones I like, "You're My Everything".

Again, as for Open Sesame--the whole band, and (like y'all have said)--Tina Brooks. He's one of the legendary "might-have-beens" in the music who's really worth getting to know.

[Big Al]

and, for that part of Hub-Tones I like, "You're My Everything".

Especially the coda!

[BruceH]

I haven't listened to this one all that much. Not sure if the compositions really hit me all that hard to be honest. I'll have to go back and listen. Nice choice for sure though...

It's not a "hard-hitting" album to be sure. More of a subtle, middle-of-the-road album. Nothing earth-shaking or ground-breaking here, but one of those albums that seem to gain in depth the longer you own it.

I must admit, I may never have caught on to it as I did without the Tina Brooks connection.

Someone mentioned it being hard to find on vinyl. Oddly, it was one of the few RVG's that I owned on vinyl years and years before it came out on CD. (Can't remember where I got it, but somewhere in Boston.) For ages it was also the only Freddie Hubbard album I owned.

Listening to it again, the track I like almost as much as #'s 1 and 3 is "Hub's Nub," the sole Hubbard composition. It's a keeper.

[six string]

This is one of my favorite Hubbard albums. The sound is amazing on my DG lp. The opening track just explodes out of my speakers. Classic Bluenote!