Passing of Freddie Hubbard

Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan and Miles were my favorite trumpet players. And while I will always treasure Morgan's incredible work on Moment's Notice and everything Miles did for jazz, Hubbard is the one of that group I enjoyed hearing the most.

Besides the Red Clay album which was just about my favorite fusion recording ever, there was just so much more: stuff like his early work with Blakey, his contributions to legendary sessions like Oliver Nelson's Blues and the Abstract Truth and Coltrane's Ascension, as well as his incredible playing on Mel Lewis's Mel and Friends, which to me will remain the best example of his straight ahead playing.

I think Hubbard's legacy was shot down a couple of notches in the 70s for those commercial CTI recordings, and while Windjammer, Liquid Love etc could have been bypassed, some of the other stuff like Straight Life, Keep Your Soul Together and Polar AC actually sound pretty decent 35 years later. Of course as drummers, it's amazing to think about all the iconic drum set players he performed live and recorded with. I mean when you look at the list, it's pretty much every legend from modern jazz.

A lot of folks know that Hubbard's chops were damaged about 15 years ago, and he never got them back. I always thought that had to have been an incredibly frustrating thing for someone who at one time had been a god of his instrument. But I think it had to be more galling for him to hear so many young trumpet players show up later and IMO not always give him at least some of the credit for the way they were playing.

My dad had peripheral professional contact with him from time to time, and compared his encounters to the ones he had with Buddy Rich. According to him, Hubbard was very tough, but you treasured every moment you were around him, because he was that good. But supposedly he kept a fence up around the general public.

I got to see Hubbard at an IAJE convention when I was in middle school. He wasn't playing, just answering some questions for a live Down Beat Blindfold Test, where they play recordings and the artist tries to guess and then comment on the musicians they hear. Hubbard seemed to be having a ball with it, and people seemed really glad to see him. He also smiled a lot. Dad said we had caught him at a good moment. I was glad it was the only time I ever saw him. Now it seems like the perfect memory.
 
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