Everything about Freddie Hubbard totally explained
Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (born
April 7 1938 in
Indianapolis,
Indiana) is an
American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the
bebop,
hard bop and
post bop styles from the early 60's up until today. In
2006, The
National Endowment for the Arts honored Hubbard with its highest honor in jazz, the
NEA Jazz Masters Award, along with a $25,000 fellowship award.
Biography
Hubbard started playing the
mellophone and
trumpet in his school band, studying at the Jordan Conservatory with the principal trumpeter of the
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In his teens Hubbard worked locally with brothers
Wes and
Monk Montgomery and worked with bassist
Larry Ridley and saxophonist
James Spaulding. In 1958, at the age of 20, he moved to
New York, and began playing with some of the best jazz players of the day, including
Philly Joe Jones,
Sonny Rollins,
Slide Hampton,
Eric Dolphy,
J. J. Johnson, and
Quincy Jones. In June 1960 Hubbard made his first record as a leader,
Open Sesame, with saxophonist
Tina Brooks, pianist
McCoy Tyner, bassist
Sam Jones, and drummer
Clifford Jarvis. Hubbard recorded his second album,
Goin' Up, with saxophonist
Hank Mobley and a rhythm section consisting of Tyner, bassist
Paul Chambers, and drummer
Philly Joe Jones. His third album,
Hub Cap, featured trombonist
Julian Priester and saxophonist
Jimmy Heath. Four months later, in
August 1961, he made one of his most famous records,
Ready For Freddie, which was also his first collaboration with
Wayne Shorter. Hubbard would join Shorter later in 1961 when he replaced
Lee Morgan in
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Hubbard remained with Blakey until
1966, leaving to form the first of several small groups of his own, which featured, among others, pianist
Kenny Barron and drummer
Louis Hayes.
It was during this time that he began to develop his own sound, distancing himself from the early influences of
Clifford Brown and Morgan, and won the
Downbeat jazz magazine "New Star" award on trumpet.
Throughout the
1960s Hubbard played as a sideman on some of the most important albums from that era, including,
Oliver Nelson's
The Blues and the Abstract Truth,
Herbie Hancock's
Maiden Voyage, and
Wayne Shorter's
Speak No Evil. He recorded extensively for
Blue Note Records in the late
1950s and
1960s: eight albums as a bandleader, and twenty-eight as a sideman. Though Hubbard never fully embraced the
free jazz of the '60s, he appeared on several landmark albums in the genre:
Ornette Coleman's
Free Jazz,
Eric Dolphy's
Out to Lunch, and
John Coltrane's
Ascension.
Hubbard achieved his greatest popular success in the
1970s with a series of albums for
Creed Taylor and his record label
CTI Records. Although his early 1970s jazz albums
Red Clay,
First Light,
Straight Life, and
Sky Dive were particularly well received and considered among his best work, the albums he recorded later in the decade were bashed by critics for their commercialism.
First Light won a
1972 Grammy Award and included pianists
Herbie Hancock and
Richard Wyands, guitarists
Eric Gale and
George Benson, bassist
Ron Carter, drummer
Jack DeJohnette, and percussionist
Airto Moreira. In 1994, Freddie, collaborating with Chicago jazz vocalist/co-writer
Catherine Whitney, had lyrics set to the music of
First Light.
During
1970-
1974 Hubbard was the biggest star of the
CTI label, overshadowing
Stanley Turrentine,
Hubert Laws, and
George Benson.
Columbia's, album was recorded from two live performances, one at the
Hearst Greek Theatre,
University of California, Berkeley, on
July 16,
1977, the other at the San Diego Civic Theatre,
July 18,
1977. Musicians joining the trumpeter for this landmark performance were the members of the mid-sixties line-up of the Miles Davis Quintet (except the leader):
Herbie Hancock on keyboards,
Tony Williams on drums,
Ron Carter on bass, and
Wayne Shorter on tenor and soprano saxophones.
In the
1980s Hubbard was again leading his own jazz group, attracting very favorable notices for his playing at concerts and festivals in the USA and Europe, often in the company of
Joe Henderson, playing a repertory of hard-bop and modal-jazz pieces. Hubbard played at the legendary
Monterey Jazz Festival in
1980 and in
1989 (with
Bobby Hutcherson). He played with
Woody Shaw, recording with him in
1985, and two years later recorded
Stardust with
Benny Golson. In
1988 he teamed up once more with Blakey at an engagement in
Holland, from which came
Feel The Wind. In
1990 he appeared in Japan headlining an American-Japanese concert package which also featured
Elvin Jones,
Sonny Fortune, pianists
George Duke and
Benny Green, bass players
Ron Carter, and
Rufus Reid, with jazz and popular music singer
Salena Jones. He also performed at the Warsaw Jazz Festival at which
Live At The Warsaw Jazz Festival (Jazzmen
1992) was recorded.
Following a long setback of health problems and a serious lip injury in
1992 where he ruptured his upper lip and subsequently developed an infection, Hubbard is again playing and recording occasionally, even if not at the high level that he set for himself during his earlier career. His best records rank with the finest in his field.
Discography
| Year |
Title |
Notes |
Label |
Billboard |
| 1992 |
Live at Fat Tuesday |
Jazz |
Music Masters |
# - |
| 1989 |
Times Are Changin' |
Jazz |
Blue Note |
# - |
| 1982 |
Ride Like the Wind |
Jazz |
Elektra/Asylum Records |
# - |
| 1981 |
Outpost |
Kenny Barron, Al Foster, Buster Williams |
Enja Records |
# - |
| 1980 |
Skagly |
Jazz |
Columbia |
# - |
| 1979 |
The Love Connection |
Jazz |
Columbia |
# - |
| 1978 |
Super Blue |
Jazz |
Columbia |
#131 |
| 1977 |
Bundle of Joy |
Jazz |
Columbia |
#149 |
| 1976 |
Windjammer |
Jazz |
CTI |
#85 |
| 1975 |
Polar AC |
Jazz |
CTI |
#167 |
| 1975 |
Liquid Love |
Jazz |
Columbia |
#149 |
| 1974 |
Keep Your Soul Together |
Jazz |
Columbia |
#186 |
| 1974 |
High Energy |
Jazz |
Columbia |
#153 |
| 1973 |
Sky Dive |
Jazz |
CTI |
#165 |
| 1971 |
First Light |
Jazz |
CTI |
- |
| 1970 |
Straight Life |
Hard bop, Fusion |
CTI |
- |
| 1970 |
Red Clay |
Hard bop, Fusion |
CTI |
- |
| 1969 |
The Hub of Hubbard |
Jazz |
MPS/BASF |
- |
| 1966 |
Backlash |
Hard bop, Avant-garde |
Atlantic |
- |
| 1965 |
Speak No Evil |
Hard bop, with Wayne Shorter |
Blue Note |
- |
| 1965 |
Blue Spirits |
Post-bop, Hard bop |
Blue Note |
- |
| 1964 |
Breaking Point |
Post-bop, Hard bop |
Blue Note |
- |
| 1963 |
The Body & the Soul |
Post-bop, Hard bop |
Impulse! |
- |
| 1962 |
Hub-Tones |
Post-bop, Hard bop |
Blue Note |
- |
| 1962 |
The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard |
Post-bop, Hard bop |
Impulse! |
- |
| 1962 |
Caravan |
Hard bop |
Impulse! |
- |
| 1961 |
Ready for Freddie |
Hard bop |
Blue Note |
- |
| 1961 |
Minor Mishap |
Hard bop |
Black Lion |
- |
| 1961 |
Here to Stay |
Hard bop |
Blue Note |
- |
| 1961 |
Hub Cap' |
Hard bop |
Blue Note |
- |
| 1960 |
Ballads |
Bop |
Blue Note |
- |
| 1960 |
Goin' Up |
Hard bop |
Blue Note |
- |
| 1960 |
Open Sesame |
Hard bop |
Blue Note |
- |
Further Information
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