BLP 4115

Freddie Hubbard - Hub-Tones

Released - October 1963

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 10, 1962
Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; James Spaulding, alto sax, flute; Herbie Hancock, piano; Reginald Workman, bass; Clifford Jarvis, drums.

tk.3 You're My Everything
tk.5 Lament For Booker
tk.7 For Spee's Sake
tk.14 Prophet Jennings
tk.20 Hub-Tones

Session Photos

Photos: © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images 
https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
You're My Everything	Mort Dixon, Harry Warren, Joe Young	10 October 1962
Prophet Jennings	Freddie Hubbard	10 October 1962
Hub-Tones	Freddie Hubbard	10 October 1962
Side Two
Lament for Booker	Freddie Hubbard	10 October 1962
For Spee's Sake	Freddie Hubbard	10 October 1962

Liner Notes

FOR the past few years, young trumpeter Freddie Hubbard has been releasing a series of albums, both as a leader of various groups and as a sideman in various others, which definitely mark him as the most exciting young player of his instrument in jazz.

Hubbard represents the jazz mainstream, a word originally employed by jazz writer Stanley Dance to describe such men as Coleman Hawkins, Buddy Tate, and Vic Dickenson. By now, it should be apparent that the true mainstream, or central position in jazz is the one occupied by such groups as the Horace Silver Quintet and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, of which Hubbard is a member. In the early days of both groups, they represented something of an advance; combining the language of Charlie Parker with material derived from the oldest blues and gospels, and solidifying the resultant style into a new vocabulary. At the some time this change was taking place, the various small groups led by Miles Davis were contributing new concepts of rhythm and space, as well as a modal approach based on far fewer chords than the boppers had used.

These approaches, in turn, have developed into a unified language, which is now the true jazz mainstream: it is the language of players like Curtis Fuller, Hank Mobley and Jackie McLean, and it is the language of Freddie Hubbard.

Hubbard, however, is perhaps the most forward-looking member of the new mainstream. Significantly, his last album prior to this (Ready for Freddie, Blue Note 4085) employed as a rhythm section McCoy Tyner, Art Davis and Elvin Jones. Two of these men are presently members of John Coltrane’s group and the third, Davis, has worked with Coltrane on many occasions. Hubbard, in his own playing, suggests that he may be forging a link between the new mainstream and Coltrane’s innovations.

Hubbard’s style is o highly unusual mixture of elements, blended with extraordinary cohesion. He is a deeply lyrical player, somewhat in the manner of Miles Davis. Unlike many young trumpet players who have been influenced by Davis, however, Hubbard has sacrificed none of his formidable technique. He is easefully at home in all ranges of his instrument, from the slashing, accurate high notes of For Spee’s Sake to the low rumination of Lament For Booker. There is, above all, an exuberance in his horn that functions as a happy antidote to much of the overly introverted work that characterizes the present area. One need say nothing more about his skill and versatility than to report that he has recorded with Blakey, Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman.

Hubbard has come into his own as a powerful, individual jazz personality. Part of this maturity is reflected in the pieces which Hubbard has written for this album. Nearly every musician who gets his own LP comes to the studio with a few lines written out, but they are seldom more than a starting point for the solos, and deserve only the slightest consideration. Hubbard’s pieces, I think, amount to much more than that. Prophet Jennings, named for a New York pointer who is a friend of several musicians, is a gentle, Eastern-tinged piece of unusual structure. It gains much from the voicing, flute and muted trumpet. Hub-Tones is based on an incessantly repeated figure, and might not even seem to be a blues until Hubbard begins his solo, coming to the breath-taking descending phrase in the second four bars. In its emotional freedom and attention to structure — Hubbard is obviously playing the piece he wrote, not just taking a few blues choruses — this is one of the very best solos he has ever recorded. The longest track is Lament for Booker, dedicated to the late trumpet player Booker little, who was a close friend of Hubbard’s. Hubbard refers to it as a ballad, a phrase which often means, when used by a jazzman, nothing more than that a piece is played slowly. Lament is something more than that, I think, an unusually successful example of a mood of melancholy contemplation sustained for an uncommon period of time. For Spee’s Sake, an up-tempo blues, is for James Spaulding, who plays alto saxophone and flute here. A friend of Hubbard’s, Spaulding was part of an Indianapolis group which Hubbard had before coming to New York. His startling opening phrase on the album’s one standard, You’re My Everything, is sufficient to announce the Coltrane influence, but he has found his own voice within that style. Equally at home and versatile on both instruments, he more than justifies Hubbard’s remark, “He will be heard from.”

The rhythm section is made up of three of the brighter talents on the East coast. Reginald Workman, who was with Coltrane at the time that the saxophonist was using two bosses, provides further evidence here that the function of the bass in jazz is constantly changing and expanding. In solo and support, he is indispensable to the album’s success. Herbie Hancock, who plays regularly with Donald Byrd, is rapidly coming to attention as an important new pianist. His is an unusual style, combining elements of funk with some of the techniques most closely associated with Bill Evans. Clifford Jarvis, tasteful and driving, is being more and more widely used, and this record should indicate why.

It is to Hubbard’s credit that this album achieves a surprising degree of unity. There is little of the haphazard feeling that too often attends blowing sessions by pick-up bands. The five men who perform here are obviously in agreement about the music, and how it should be approached. It would be easy to mistake this for a group which works regularly. Part of that is simply because oil the players are part of the new mainstream, the part that is seeking beyond the accepted common language to find ways of extending it. The rest is because of Hubbard’s unusual talent. After hearing this recording, I remarked to him that it sounded as though he had been spending more time on his writing. “You mean, he asked, “that you think it’s getting better?” I do, and I think the some of his playing. And to someone who is so young, and has accomplished so much already, perhaps that is the only compliment needed.

—JOE GOLDBERG

Cover Photo by FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT HUB-TONES

Freddie Hubbard was enjoying his fifth year in New York at the time he recorded Hub-Tones, with his accomplishments to that point establishing him as the jazz trumpeter of the future. His resume included important bandstand experience under the leadership of Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson and Art Blakey. Recordings that were already obtaining classic status by John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Coleman and Oliver Nelson featured Hubbard's horn; and his affiliation with the Blue Note label had led to additional memorable sideman appearances as well as a series of his own celebrated LPs.

Still, business realities led even the most brilliant young players to think twice before launching their own groups. The jazz nightclub business was in a state of visible erosion, and the commercial inroads made by rock and roll grew ever more imposing. Hubbard had already put in a year with Blakey at the time of this album, and remained a Jazz Messenger until the Spring of 1964. His notions of what a group of his own should sound like were clear enough, and these tracks provide a clearer view than any of his previous sessions as to where Hubbard was headed. The format stands apart from the more typical trumpet/tenor blend, and the program of primarily original material also highlights the various dimensions of Hubbard's personality. Its blend of the familiar and the daring befits someone who was in the unique position of being first-call trumpeter for both hard bop and avant-garde dates. These performances do not sound like imitations of the Messengers or Cannonball Adderley or any other established band, although Hancock's support on "You're My Everything" (particularly the alternate take) could have served as the pianist's audition for his upcoming gig with Miles Davis. And even the most sensitive passages are stamped with the spark that was already synonymous with the name Freddie Hubbard.

A central factor in the success of the date is the chemistry between the leader and James Spaulding. This was their first meeting on record, although the association goes back to a band called the Jazz Contemporaries in their native Indianapolis. Spaulding moved on to Chicago and service in what was then the fairly recently organized Sun Ra Arkestra before moving to New York and reuniting with his hometown friend. The glorious cry in Spaulding's alto reveals comfort with the discoveries of Dolphy and Coltrane while also bearing the stamp of a singular personality, and his ability to play the flute with an equivalent assurance and presence opened up a realm of additional possibilities. While Spaulding never recorded for Blue Note as a leader, he quickly became as much of a presence on the label as those who did by contributing to several other Hubbard albums as well as dates by such major figures as Bobby Hutcherson and Wayne Shorter. One can imagine that he won Alfred Lion's heart with his stark blues solo on the title track.

Hubbard was familiar with the rest of the quintet as well. Drummer Clifford Jarvis had played in the trumpeter's debut album for the label, Open Sesame, and would return for one of the sessions that comprise Hubbard's Blue Spirits. Reggie Workman was working alongside Hubbard nightly in the Jazz Messengers. While Herbie Hancock was a more recent acquaintance, he and Hubbard had already proven to be ideal collaborators on Hancock's first album, Takin' Off, where Hubbard blew a brash solo on the pianist's hit tune "Watermelon Man." Surrounded by such talented and reliable partners, Hubbard was able to provide music that also grew out of personal associations. Three of his four compositions are direct tributes - to Spaulding, trumpeter Booker Little and the painter Richard "Prophet" Jennings, who had provided cover art for (and received similar musical honors from) Eric Dolphy and Max Roach. Each of the originals, even the two blues pieces, has a unique tonal and structural character, and in each case (including the three alternate takes) the members of the quintet rise to the challenge.

Joe Goldberg makes an excellent point in his original liner notes concerning the evolution of the "mainstream" concept in jazz. While the term had originally been employed to older, established musicians who possessed a core set of values and skills that the modernists had supposedly abandoned, the expansive eloquence of musicians like Hubbard was proving how successfully new ideas could still be absorbed into the common vernacular. Hub-Tones can be called a prime example of the jazz mainstream not because it avoids the risk of innovation, but because players like Freddie Hubbard had made such discoveries feel as joyous and satisfying as blues changes and straight-ahead swing.

-Bob Blumenthal, 1999