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Freddie Hubbard
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Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (born April 7, 1938 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American jazz trumpeter.
In his youth, Hubbard associated with various musicians in Indianapolis, including Wes Montgomery and Montgomery's brothers. Chet Baker was an early influence, although Hubbard soon aligned himself with the approach of Clifford Brown (and his forebears: Fats Navarro and Dizzy Gillespie).
Hubbard's jazz career began in earnest after moving to New York City in 1958. While there, he worked with Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton, J. J. Johnson, Philly Joe Jones, Oliver Nelson, and Quincy Jones, among others. He gained attention while playing with the seminal hard bop ensemble Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, appearing on such albums as Mosaic, Buhaina's Delight, and Free For All. He left the Messengers in 1964 to lead his own groups and since that time has maintained a high profile as a bandleader or featured as a special guest, but never merely a sideman.
Along with two other trumpeters also born in 1938, Lee Morgan (d. 1971) and Booker Little (d. 1961), Hubbard exerted a strong force on the direction of 1960s jazz. He recorded extensively for Blue Note Records: eight albums as a bandleader, and twenty-eight as a sideman. [1] Most of these recordings are regarded as classics. Hubbard appeared on a few early avant-garde landmarks (Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch and John Coltrane's Ascension), but Hubbard never fully embraced free jazz, though it has influenced his playing.
After leaving Blue Note, Hubbard recorded for the Atlantic label and moved toward a more commercial style. His next label was CTI Records where he recorded his best-known works, Red Clay, First Light, and Sky Dive. By 1970, his fiery, melodic improvisation and phenomenal technique established him as perhaps the leading trumpeter of his day, but a series of commercially oriented smooth jazz albums spawned some negative criticism. After signing with Columbia Records, Hubbard's albums were almost exclusively in a commercial vein. However, in 1976, Hubbard toured and recorded with V.S.O.P., led by Herbie Hancock which presented unadulterated jazz in the style of the 1960s Miles Davis Quintet (with Hubbard taking the place of Davis).
1980s projects moved between straight-ahead and commercial styles, and Hubbard recorded for several different labels including Atlantic, Pablo, Fantasy, Elektra/Musician, and the revived Blue Note label. The slightly younger Woody Shaw was Hubbard's main jazz competitor during the 1970s and 1980s, and the two eventually recorded together on three occasions. Hubbard participated in the short-lived Griffith Park Collective, which also included Joe Henderson, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White.
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Alan Shorter: Mephistopholes To Orgasm Revisited
![Read "Mephistopholes To Orgasm Revisited" reviewed by Chris May](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/coverart/large/5ceedec2c6ea56ff90c44b6e5d08dcd1.jpg)
by Chris May
It is often said of a musician, be they alive or no longer with us, that they deserve to be better known. This is emphatically true of the wayward trumpeter and composer Alan Shorter, who was overshadowed during his lifetime by his brother, Wayne Shorter, and who continues to be passed over today in 2024. Some responsibility for his obscurity lies with Alan Shorter himself. Known as Doc Strange to his teenage schoolmates in Newark, New Jersey, ...
read moreFreddie Hubbard: One Of A Kind
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by Richard J Salvucci
It is something of a challenge to review Freddie Hubbard's work from the early 1980s. He had changed direction in the early 1970s with Red Clay (CTI, 1970) moving toward soul-jazz and jazz-rock, although anyone listening to Hubbard's playing would hear his standard vocabulary of licks. Some listeners approved; some listeners did not; and some simply labelled him a sell-out. This certainly was not the Hubbard of Blue Note, and while he returned to playing straight ahead in the mid-1980s ...
read moreFreddie Hubbard at the Jazz Cafe in London
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by Rob Hancock
I love the sound of the trumpet and flugelhorn, above all else in jazz. Hey day players like Miles, Morgan, Dorham and Gillespie are some of my favourites, but no one has left a bigger mark on my ears than Freddie Hubbard. Whether it be his firing early 60's works with the Messengers, his countless Blue Note dates or his super funky contribution to the CTI catalogue, it's all great. Freddie was one of the few trumpet players to have ...
read moreEric Dolphy: Outward Bound To Out To Lunch Revisited
![Read "Outward Bound To Out To Lunch Revisited" reviewed by John Eyles](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/coverart/large/3105de9f7927dccc0fbb180dae1996f5.jpg)
by John Eyles
Ask any jazz aficionado for their favourite jazz albums of the '60s and the chances are that, alongside such decade-defining choices as Jimmy Giuffre's Free Fall (Columbia, 1963), John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (Impulse, 1965), Andrew Hill's Point of Departure (Blue Note, 1965) and Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity (ESP, 1965), they will select Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch (Blue Note, 1964). Now the Dolphy classic has been reissued on Ezz-thetics alongside one of his older recordings, Outward Bound (Prestige, 1964), ...
read moreMcCoy Tyner / Freddie Hubbard Quartet: Live At Fabrik
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by Chris May
Warning! Highly Flammable Material! This superb album, recorded in Hamburg in 1986 and never previously released, ought to come with a caution, so incendiary is it. Strictly speaking, Live At Fabrik presents pianist McCoy Tyner's trio with bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Louis Hayes and guest artist Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and flugelhorn. In actuality, Hubbard's power-packed presence transforms the unit into a co-led quartet, as the cover art acknowledges. The 2 x CD album is, in ...
read more'70s sounds: Randy Weston, Freddie Hubbard + Goatface! and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten
![Read "'70s sounds: Randy Weston, Freddie Hubbard + Goatface! and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten" reviewed by David Brown](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/5a75521712f6e50b4b9fd14ebcaafb89.jpg)
by David Brown
This week, Scandinavian sounds from both Linda Fredriksson and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, a slick '70s set from Randy Weston, Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson, then, a Latin groove takes over with Mongo Santamaria, Oscar Hernandez and more, and finally, zone out in Brazil with Goatface! Welcome friends and neighbors to The Jazz Continuum. Old, new, in, out... wherever the music takes us. Each week, we will explore the elements of jazz from a historical perspective. Playlist Linda Fredriksson ...
read moreFreddie Hubbard: Open Sesame
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by Chris May
Blue Note's two 180gm vinyl-reissue series--Blue Note 80 and Tone Poet--continue on their enigmatic going on erratic, but mostly magnificent paths. Tone Poet is billed as the audiophile option but, on a fairly limited sampling of both series, there seems to be little, if anything at all, separating the two in audio terms. The key difference is that Tone Poet has the more luxurious, heavyweight packaging. Whatever. It is the music that countsand 22-year old Freddie Hubbard's 1960 label debut ...
read moreFreddie Hubbard: Complete Blue Note & Impulse
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Even if you own all 10 of the Freddie Hubbard albums covered on The Complete Freddie Hubbard Blue Note & Impulse '60s Studio Sessions, the newly released seven-CD set from Mosaic Records, this box is a must. The albums in the box were recorded between 1960 and 1967. First, the box's sound is fantastic. It's much warmer and dimensional than previous issues, and the individual instruments are more vivid and distinct, with a broader and more colorful tonal impact. The ...
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McCoy Tyner and Freddie Hubbard, 1986
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1986, Fabrik—or Factory—stood on the west side of Hamburg, Germany, in the Altona district. Back then, the former machine-parts factory was a cultural center frequented by young people in the left-wing eco-movement and by those on the right, depending on what was on the bill at the performance space. Sometimes the two groups converged when the performers appealed to both groups. As a result, Fabrik's programs were often highly diverse, ranging from pop and ska to punk and jazz. ...
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The MPS Records legacy resumes with vinyl releases of Ella Fitzgerald’s 'Sunshine Of Your Love' and Freddie Hubbard’s'The Hub of Hubbard'
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Great Scott P.R.oductions
Jazz history was forged in the rustic Black Forest of Germany in 1968 when Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer launched MPS Records and recorded some of the genre’s seminal artists. Legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, The Count Basie Orchestra and George Duke released albums on the prestigious label known for its high-level recording technique and distinctive aesthetic. Much of MPS’s catalog will be reissued in the United States over the coming months thanks to a ...
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Freddie Hubbard: Three Videos
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard came up at the height of the hard bop movement in the late 1950s and became instrumental in free jazz movement in the 1960s and fusion in the '70s. His second recording was on John Coltrane's The Believer in late 1958, and from then on Hubbard was in strong demand. His critical recordings in the 1960s include Ornette Coleman's Double Quartet, Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Dexter Gordon's Doin' Allright, Coltrane's Africa Brass, Herbie ...
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Universal Music Opens Vaults To Launch uDiscover Online Store
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HypeBot
Catalog sales contribute a great deal to the bottom line of most labels, and online commerce provides a unique opportunity to leverage the long tale of fan interest well after mainstream media stops caring. Sony Legacy is a prime example. Now, Universal Music is mining its massive vaults and selling some real treasures. Universal Music Enterprises has launched a new online store, uDiscoverMusic, aimed at leveraging its historical assets as a new revenue stream. The uDiscover store allows fans to ...
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3 Generations Of Freddie Hubbard Alumni at Blue Whale on October 11-12
![3 Generations Of Freddie Hubbard Alumni at Blue Whale on October 11-12](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/802a62ce41fef2cbc9bf25a6f8109d55.jpg)
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John Beasley
A spontaneous Hub reunion of Freddie Hubbard’s band members. From the 70s, Henry Franklin on bass. Carrying the rhythm section in the 80s and 90s, Carl Allen on drums with John Beasley on keyboards, and standing out front on sax was Bob Sheppard. Joining the band in the 90s was Ralph Moore on sax. On the reunion stage, Ambrose Akinmusire join this alumni band. 2 nights, 4 sets in the spirit of Freddie! “I was changing the style of the ...
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Stunning covers of Johnny Mercer and Freddie Hubbard among highlights of new album
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Graham Taylor
Trumpet, meet master. In the hands of Steve Klenke, the trumpet becomes a paintbrush in which he can render stunningly beautiful imagery, from the playful innocence of a Little Sunflower" to the awe-inspiring majesty of an Evening Star." With or without words, the songs on Klenke's latest album, Tangerine, bloom in Technicolor. They are brightly lit and are brimming with good vibrations; combining jazz standards with his own timeless compositions, Klenke offers the best of the past and present with ...
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Freddie Hubbard - Pinnacle: Live and Unreleased (2011)
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Something Else!
The late Freddie Hubbard, whose brilliant technique and warm tone were occasionally obscured by unfortunate settings, is perhaps to blame for his own dimmed star. Recordings like this make his case all over again. Punchy and full of solos that are both demonstrative and then incendiary, Pinnacle: Live and Unreleased was recorded in June and October of 1980 at San Francisco's Keystone Korner with a backing group that included bassist Larry Klein (now Joni Mitchell's producer) and pianist Billy Childs, ...
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Freddie Hubbard - Pinnacle; Live and Unreleased from Keystone Korner (Resonance, 2011)
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Music and More by Tim Niland
Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard was one of the leading lights of the hard-bop movement in the sixties, leading several albums of his own for Blue Note Records, while participating in sessions as wide ranging as Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz and John Coltrane's Ascension. Hubbard had become something of a journeyman by 1980 when this concert was recorded; he had recorded some pop-jazz for Atlantic in the 70's and would soon develop severe lip problems that would curtail the remainder of his ...
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Announcing the Winners of the "Freddie Hubbard - Pinnacle: Live and Unreleased from Keystone Korner" Giveaway
![Announcing the Winners of the "Freddie Hubbard - Pinnacle: Live and Unreleased from Keystone Korner" Giveaway](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/photos/profile/musician/5a75521712f6e50b4b9fd14ebcaafb89.jpg)
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All About Jazz