There are certain musicians that are the embodiment of not only their instruments, but their style; trumpeter Freddie Hubbard is such an artists. For most of his career, he was the Cock of the Walk on the trumpet, with every session he appeared on immediately becoming essential. To put his impact into perspective, in just one year, 1961, he appeared on or led SEVENTEEN albums, which included (take a deep breath) John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass, Jackie McLean’s Bluesnik, Dexter Gordon’s Doin’ Alright, Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz, Oliver Nelson’s Blues and the Abstract Truth Art Blakey’s Mosaic, and two of his own albums Ready For Freddie and Hub Cap, the last three part of this absolutely essential 4 disc, 8 album anthology.
Hubbard filled a void created by the death of Clifford Brown, forming a big, testosteroned style rivaled only by Lee Morgan. His 1960 session as a sideman with tenor saxist Tina Brooks on Open Sesame also include McCoy Tyner on piano in fascinatingly straightahead bopping mood, with Hubbard in full machismo on a rip roaring charge of “All OR Nothing At All” as well as a gorgeous aria of “But Beautiful”. The middleweight tenors of Brooks or Hank Mobley are perfect foils, with the latter hitting all the circuits on “The Changing Scene.”
The aforementioned Hub Cap includes hard boppers Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Heath/ts, Larry Ridley/b and Julian Priester/tb, with Hubbard searing through the torrid “Plexus” and intricate title tune. The classic Ready for Freddie reunites him with Tyner, as well as Wayne Shorter/ts, Art Davis/b, Bernard McKinney/euph and the thunderous Elvin Jones/dr and includes two of his most famous tunes, “Birdlike” and “Crisis” in 1962, Hubbard continued his roll with Here To Stay with essentially the Hub Cap band except for Cedar Walton on the piano for the incendiary “Philly Mignon” and an exotic “Father and Son”, with Hubbard blowing smoke rings for “Body and Soul”. Hubbard mixes things up for Hub-Tones, bringing in old friend James Spaulding/as-fl and a wondrous Herbie Hancock/p for a hint of things to come with Hubbard leaning left on “You’re My Everything” and the agonizing “Lament For Booker”.
The last disc has a couple ringers, with Hubbard circa 1961 as a sideman on one of Art Blakey’s best Jazz Messengers with Shorter, Walton, Curtis Fuller/tb and Jymie Merritt/b for a hip “Mosaic”, fragrant “Arabia” and more muscular read of “Crisis”. But nothing comes close to the tectonic shift of 1964s Breaking Point! with Spaulding, Joe Chambers/dr, Eddie Khan/b and Ronnie Matthews/b. The band walks the tightrope between advanced hard bop and modal, with Mathews all over the pl ace mixing calypso, bop and beyond on the title tune, and Hubbard riding like a long boarder on “D Minor Mint” and “Blue Frenzy”. Chambers shifts gears like a Formula One driver on “Far Away” and his own “Mirrors” a rich stage for a Hubbard aria. p
To say that this collection is important is like saying that fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly. You can’t talk about the horn unless you hear The Hub.