Monday, December 29, 2008

"He sounds to me like John Coltrane playing the trumpet"

I am sitting at home, listening to my jazz albums that feature trumpeter FREDDIE HUBBARD, who passed away today age 70.
He is absolutely fantastic on the OLIVER NELSON album "THE BLUES AND THE ABSTRACT TRUTH," one of my favorite albums of any genre.
It was Nelson who likened Hubbard to a trumpet-playing Coltrane.
I am also listening to Hubbard's work on the challenging masterpiece by ERIC DOLPHY, "OUT TO LUNCH."
Hubbard seemed to shine brightest in the company of others, although his "HUB-TONES" is one of the best albums of the early 1960s.
Ian Carr, in "JAZZ: THE ROUGH GUIDE," sums up Hubbard's unique place in jazz annals:
"Hubbard's debut in jazz was even more remarkable than the bald facts indicate. At only 22, he walked straight into the jazz history books. In December 1960, he participated in the Ornette Coleman double quartet album 'Free Jazz,' one of the seminal albums of the early 1960s avant-garde, and only two months later," again with Dolphy, Hubbard played an equally important part in another classic and influential recording -- Nelson's 'Blues and the Abstract Truth.' Even at that early stage, Hubbard's style was fully formed."
I lamented Hubbard's passing to a fellow jazz lover at work this afternoon. It breaks my heart to see these giants leave us.

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