In the late ’80s I got caught trying to walk out of the Blue Note without paying. I had hoped the $18 in my pocket was enough, but it wasn’t. But that’s how badly I needed to see Freddie Hubbard.
It wasn’t just Hubbard’s ferocity on the trumpet that got me. It was his bands. And at that time I was discovering just what it is that jazz bands do. Hearing Hubbard with Benny Green or Billy Childs on piano, Javon Jackson or Don Braden on tenor, Ronnie Burrage on drums — this was just too hot to handle. I must have heard him at the Blue Note four or five times.
I’d learned about Hubbard from some of my favorite albums: Herbie Hancock’s Empyrean Isles and Maiden Voyage, Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil. I’d also worn out the grooves on records by the all-star Griffith Park band, with Hubbard, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White (acoustic Return to Forever, almost). He remains an inspiration and he’ll be missed.
My July 9 capsule review of Hubbard’s final release, On the Real Side:
No one even tries to argue that Freddie Hubbard, 70, one of the scariest trumpeters in history, is in peak form after years of lip dysfunction and other health problems. But thanks to trumpeter/arranger/producer David Weiss and his surging octet, Hubbard gets support of the highest caliber on this follow-up to 2001’s New Colors. Forgoing pyrotechnics and sticking to flugelhorn, Hubbard still commands respect on seven of his own tunes arranged by octet members, including a brand-new title track and unheralded gems like “Theme for Kareem.” Burning solos by Myron Walden, Craig Handy, Xavier Davis and others seal the deal.
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