FREDDIE HUBBARD Live at Fat Tuesday's
Compact Disc No.1
[1] TAKE IT TO THE OZONE
(Freddie Hubbard)
Hub-tones Music, BMI
[2] EGAD
(Christian McBride)
ToniChris Music, BMI
[3] PHOEBE'S SAMBA
(Benny Green)
Benny Green Music, BMI
[4] BUT BEAUTIFUL
(Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke)
Bourne Co./Music Sales Corp; ASCAP
[5] ONE OF A KIND
(Freddie Hubbard)
Hub-tones Music, BMI
Compact Disc No. 2
[1] C.O.R.E.
(Freddie Hubbard)
Hub-tones Music, BMI
[2] DESTINY'S CHILDREN
(Freddie Hubbard)
Hub-tones Music, BMI
[3] FIRST LIGHT
(Freddie Hubbard)
Hub-tones Music, BMI
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet, flugelhorn; Benny Green, piano;* Christian McBride, bass; Tony Reedus, drums; Javon Jackson, tenor saxophone
*'Courtesy of Blue Note Records
Frederick Dewayne Hubbard has spent much of his time in recent years making the rounds of clinics and classrooms explaining to new generations of musicians just what is this thing called jazz. The trumpeter's signature sound, biting attack and fluid, harmonically brilliant improvisations have been showcased in the past few years in the context of appearing as a guest star soloist, headlining ensembles assembled for national and international tours, and leading units in studio projects, the last of which, "Bolivia" (MusicMasters 5063), amply demonstrated how Freddie Hubbard still has his own unique story to tell.
But these discs, recorded live at New York's Fat Tuesday's, a sliver of a club nestled in a basement room on the city's east side, potentially marks the next turning point in his career. "I haven't had a steady group for a long time," Hubbard relates. "I think right now it would be good to get together with some young cats, get a sound with them and they'll be the guys of the future." The band Hubbard assembled for this date could very well become that unit, for it consists of some of the most outstanding musicians from the present wave of young jazz traditionalists breathing new life into this art form, and are
well aware of Freddie's own contribution to his instrument and jazz as a whole.
To tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson, "after Clifford Brown, in the lineage of the trumpet, the next very important person is Freddie Hubbard; he's one of the greatest trumpet players ever to live, and one of the greatest writers in the Jazz idiom.” According to pianist Benny Green, "(Freddie's) time is so strong that he as a horn player can actually swing the whole band. When he plays a line, the pulse is stated so firmly that he really brings the whole band into sharp focus, so it's really an inspiration to play with him." Hubbard's music made an early impression on bassist Christian McBride: "I first became aware of Freddie's music back in the eighth grade. One of the first jazz albums I ever had was 'Red Clay'. I learned every song off of the album and after that Freddie's always been and always will be my all-time favorite trumpeter." For drummer Tony Reedus, "the intenseness of his playing, that's what really grabbed my ear. The first time I played with him I had an incredible high like nothing I've ever felt before."
Hubbard himself had the following to say about his sidemen: "You can hear the
individual feeling from each one of these guys through their music. I'm very happy, I'm proud that these guys are taking an interest in this music and to get as good as they are at such an early age."
Staying with the youngsters and keeping the mind active, a motto of Art Blakey’s which also served Hubbard well from the creation of his first working unit as upon leaving the Jazz Messengers in 1964. This album is dedicated to Blakey's memory in remembrance of Art's generosity to musicians and his own unique genius. "He taught me how to be a leader," mused Hubbard, "he was great in small group playing and getting guys to play together, where to hit, how to make the breaks, how to phrase together. Things like that you don't learn in school. He passed it along to the guys who were writing, Wayne Shorter, Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, Benny Golson. He take their material and show them how to play it; he made me write." Or, as Benny Green put it, "Art Blakey groomed bandleaders and Freddie Hubbard is one of the finest that he groomed. He's as strong a soloist as you'll ever hear from, but also very importantly, he's a composer that incorporates all the instruments in the
ensemble into his composing and arranging and that's truly in the Jazz Messengers tradition."
Green and Jackson's contributions to that tradition came as a result of their stints with Blakey; the former was a Messenger for two and one half years and Jackson’s three and one half year stint ended only with Blakey's final illness and passing. Both first performed with Hubbard as Messengers when the trumpeter appeared a soloist with the band. Both saxophonist and pianist made an impression. "One reasons I got Javon was that he's had experience playing with this kind of fire Hubbard, "Benny plays hard; Blakey taught him that."
Jackson was first approached by Hubbard to join his unit while he was a member of the Harper Brothers' band. Stints and/or studies with bassist-leaders Charlie Haden, Bill Lee and Ron Carter also intervened, although as Jackson recalls, "we had an instant rapport. Even when I wasn't working with Freddie I called him on the one or twice a month." These recordings document Javon Jackson's first week as a member of the Freddie Hubbard Quintet, but the consistent excellence of his solos reveals his years of
appreciation and study of the Freddie Hubbard songbook.
According to Hubbard, his encounters with Benny Green while he played with Blakey and during the four years he accompanied vocalist Betty Carter inevitably ended with the pianist telling him, "I'm gonna play with you, man." He has been working on and off with Hubbard for a couple of years; a recent highlight of their association was a performance in the former Soviet Union. In both music as well as speech, Benny is articulate without being verbose, and perhaps his greatest gift is knowing how to make every note count. In 1989, Green performed as part of a Hubbard quintet for a record date that also included drummer Carl Allen. The pianist's primary activities in the last year have been centered around his own working trio, which includes Allen and bassist Christian McBride.
Allen was Hubbard's regular drummer when McBride landed in the Big Apple, and the teen-aged prodigy had a game plan: "When I first moved to New York my number one priority was to somehow play in Freddie's band; that's no lie. Of course Carl and Freddie were close, so when Carl and I became close, that's how we got together."
That, and as Hubbard remembers it, a strong recommendation from music agent Mary Ann Topper also brought McBride to his attention. Now 20 years of age, McBride is the youngest member of the ensemble, and with eight years of professional musicmaking behind him, he already has the rocksteady time, virtuosity and taste of a seasoned performer.
The oldest sideman here, Tony Reedus (13 years McBride's elder) first performed with Freddie in a unit the trumpeter co-led with Benny Golson that made a European tour in 1990 which also included James Williams and Peter Washington. A busy New York based freelancer, Reedus has held the drum chair in ensembles led by reedmen Joe Henderson, George Coleman and Billy Pierce and pianists Mulgrew Miller, Joanne Brackeen and Andrew Hill, among others. With Hubbard's ensemble, the energy level of the music nearly always pushes the envelope and Reedus always meets the challenge. The program heard here consists primarily of originals. All of Hubbard's bandmates have contributed to the band's book; two examples are included in this collection. "Egad" was composed by Christian McBride.
The title was derived from the head's bass line, E A G D ("It doesn't spell Egad, but it's close enough," says its author.) The tune's dark, mysterious sound appealed to Freddie, as well as the arrangement which allows for Blakeyesque drum fills in the theme statement. Benny Green wrote "Phoebe's Samba" in dedication to his sister, Phoebe. "For me, it's sort of a musical depiction of the rhythm that she walks with," says the pianist. Hubbard's choices of originals form a kind of retrospective. "C.O.R.E." was one of Freddie's vehicles for burning composed for the Messengers, first recorded in 1964 and dedicated to the Congress of Racial Equality. His CTI period of the early seventies is represented by reinterpretations of "First Light" and "Destiny's Children." "One Of A Kind," a tribute to Miles Davis (composed when he was still very much with us) was a staple of the V.S.O.P. band at the end of that decade, and the stratospheric "Take It To The Ozone" made its first appearance on Hubbard's "Super Blue" album of 1978.
Johnny Burke, and introduced in 1947 in one of the Crosby-Hope-Lamour "Road" movie musicals, "The Road To Rio." But it was Billie Holiday's haunting rendition on "Lady In Satin" that first transfixed Freddie, and he chose it for his ballad feature on his first album as a leader in 1960. Here's a welcome reprise.
What does the future hold for this edition of the Freddie Hubbard Quintet? There will definitely be more club gigs, more concerts and hopefully, more recordings. In assembling the band heard here in these performances, Hubbard's aim was to put together a hard-blowing, no-nonsense powerhouse ensemble to play hard-blowing, nononsense jazz, and the young turks enlisted more than lived up to their responsibilities. Amazingly, aside from an obscure Japanese release with Benny Golson, this is the first club session with Hubbard to make it to official release since 1965's two volume "Night of the Cookers." These two evenings of music recorded on the bandstand of Fat Tuesday's might well become known as the nights of the cookers of nineties.
The one standard, "But Beautiful," was composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and
-CLIFF PREISS
