Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives for modern jazz and bebop.
Career beginnings Hubbard attended Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, and while in the school band started playing various instruments, including the mellophone, the French horn, and tuba, as well as the trumpet, which would become his main focus. Forming his first band, the Jazz Contemporaries, he played at George's Bar on Indiana Avenue, and, in his teens, also worked locally with brothers Wes and Monk Montgomery, and worked with bassist Larry Ridley and saxophonist James Spaulding.
Trumpeter Lee Katzman, former sideman with Stan Kenton, recommended that Hubbard take trumpet lessons at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music (now the Jordan College of the Arts at Butler University) with Max Woodbury, principal trumpeter of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
In 1958, at the age of 20, Hubbard moved to New York and began playing with some of the best jazz players of the era, including Philly Joe Jones, Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton, Eric Dolphy, J. J. Johnson, and Quincy Jones. On June 19, 1960, Hubbard made his first record as a leader, Open Sesame, at the beginning of his contract with Blue Note Records, with saxophonist Tina Brooks, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Clifford Jarvis. Six days later, he returned the favor to Brooks and recorded with him on True Blue.
1960s In December 1960, Hubbard was invited to play on Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, after Coleman heard him performing with Don Cherry.Martin Williams, sleeve notes to Free Jazz (1960) In May 1961, Hubbard played on Olé Coltrane, John Coltrane's final session for Atlantic Records. Coltrane also hired Hubbard, Eric Dolphy and Art Davis, who all appeared on Olé, to record Africa/Brass, Coltrane's first album with Impulse!, which was begun just after Olé.
In August 1961, Hubbard recorded Ready for Freddie (Blue Note), which was also his first collaboration with saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Hubbard became Shorter's bandmate when he replaced Lee Morgan in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers later in 1961. He played on more than 10 live and studio recordings with Blakey during one of the most acclaimed eras of the Jazz Messengers, including Caravan, Ugetsu, Mosaic, and Free for All. In all, during the 1960s, he recorded eight studio albums as a bandleader for Blue Note, and more than two dozen as a sideman.
Hubbard remained with Blakey until 1966, leaving to form the first of several small groups of his own, which featured, among others, his Blue Note associate James Spaulding, pianist Kenny Barron and drummer Louis Hayes. This group recorded for Atlantic. It was during this time that Hubbard began to develop his own sound, distancing himself from the early influences of Clifford Brown and Morgan, and won the DownBeat jazz magazine "New Star" award on trumpet."Freddie Hubbard", NEA Jazz Masters, 2006.
Throughout the 1960s, Hubbard played as a sideman on some of the most important albums from that era, including Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth (1961), Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch! (1964), Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage (1965), and Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil (1966).Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Guinness (1995), pp. 2018–2019 – . Hubbard was described as "the most brilliant trumpeter of a generation of musicians who stand with one foot in 'tonal' jazz and the other in the atonal camp". Though he never fully embraced the free jazz of the 1960s, he appeared on two of its landmark albums: Coleman's Free Jazz (1961) and Coltrane's Ascension (1966), as well as on Sonny Rollins's "new thing" track "East Broadway Run Down" (on the 1966 album of the same name), with Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison.
1970s
Hubbard achieved his greatest popular success in the 1970s with a series of albums for Creed Taylor and his record label CTI Records, overshadowing Stanley Turrentine, Hubert Laws, and George Benson.Yanow, Scott, Jazz on Record: The First Sixty Years, Backbeat Books, 2003, p. 821 – . Although his early 1970s jazz albums Red Clay (1970), Straight Life (1970), First Light (1971), and Sky Dive (1972) were particularly well received and considered among his best work, the albums he recorded later in the decade were attacked by critics for their commercialism. First Light won a 1972 Grammy Award and included pianists Herbie Hancock and Richard Wyands, guitarists Eric Gale and George Benson, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Jack DeJohnette, and percussionist Airto Moreira. In 1994, Hubbard, collaborating with Chicago jazz vocalist/co-writer Catherine Whitney, had lyrics set to the music of First Light.
In 1977, Hubbard joined the all-star V.S.O.P. band, which also featured Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Ron Carter and Wayne Shorter. All of the band's members except Hubbard were members of the mid-1960s Miles Davis Quintet. Several live recordings of this group were released as V.S.O.P, The Quintet, Tempest in the Colosseum (all 1977) and V.S.O.P. Live Under the Sky (1979).
Hubbard's trumpet playing was featured on the track "Zanzibar" from the 1978 Billy Joel album 52nd Street (the 1979 Grammy Award winner for Best Album). The track ends with a fade during Hubbard's performance. An unfaded version was released on the 2004 Billy Joel boxed set My Lives.
Later life
In the 1980s, Hubbard was again leading his own jazz group – this time with Billy Childs and Larry Klein, among others, as members – attracting favorable reviews, playing at concerts and festivals in the US and Europe, often in the company of Joe Henderson, playing a repertory of hard bop and modal jazz pieces. Hubbard played at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1980 and in 1989 (with Bobby Hutcherson). He and Woody Shaw recorded two albums as co-leaders for Blue Note and played live concerts together from 1985 to 1987. In 1987, he was a co-leader with Benny Golson on the Stardust album.
In 1988, Hubbard again teamed up with Blakey at an engagement in the Netherlands, from which came Feel the Wind. In 1988, Hubbard played with Elton John, contributing trumpet and flugelhorn and trumpet solos on the track "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Part Two)" for John's Reg Strikes Back album. In 1990, Hubbard appeared in Japan headlining an American-Japanese concert package that also featured Elvin Jones, Sonny Fortune, pianists George Duke and Benny Green, bass players Ron Carter, and Rufus Reid, with jazz vocalist Salena Jones. Hubbard also performed at the Warsaw Jazz Festival, at which Live at the Warsaw Jazz Festival (Jazzmen 1992) was recorded.
Following a long setback of health problems and a serious lip injury in 1992, when he subsequently developed an infection, Hubbard was again playing and recording occasionally, even if not at the level he set for himself during his earlier career. His best records ranked with the finest in his field.Yanow, Scott. Jazz: A Regional Exploration, Greenwood Press, 2005, p. 184 – .
Death On December 29, 2008, Hubbard died in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, from complications caused by a heart attack he suffered on November 26. Hubbard's body was cremated, with his ashes given to his family.
Legacy and honors In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts accorded Hubbard its highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award.
Hubbard had close ties to the Jazz Foundation of America in his later years. The Jazz Foundation of America's Musicians' Emergency Fund took care of him during times of illness. He is quoted as saying: "When I had congestive heart failure and couldn't work, the Jazz Foundation paid my mortgage for several months and saved my home! Thank God for those people.""Freddie Hubbard" , Jazz Foundation of America. After his death, Hubbard's estate requested that tax-deductible donations be made in his name to the Jazz Foundation.
Discography As leader/co-leader Recording date Title Label Year released Notes 1960–06 Open Sesame Blue Note 1960 1960–11 Goin' Up Blue Note 1961 1961–04 Hub Cap Blue Note 1961 1961–08 Groovy!/Minor Mishap Fontana/Black Lion 1989 1961–08 Ready for Freddie Blue Note 1962 1962–07 The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard Impulse! 1963 1962–10 Hub-Tones Blue Note 1963 1962–12 Here to Stay Blue Note 1976 [2LP] The Blue Note Re-Issue Series 1963–03, 1963-05 The Body & the Soul Impulse! 1964 1964–05 Breaking Point! Blue Note 1964 1965–04 The Night of the Cookers Blue Note 1965 Live 1965–06 Jam Gems: Live at the Left Bank with Jimmy Heath Label M 2001 Live 1965–02, 1966–03 Blue Spirits Blue Note 1967 1966–10 Backlash Atlantic 1967 1967–04 Fastball: Live at the Left Bank Hyena 2005 Live 1967–11 High Blues Pressure Atlantic 1968 1968–12, 1969–01 A Soul Experiment Atlantic 1969 1969–05 The Black Angel Atlantic 1970 1969–12 The Hub of Hubbard MPS 1970 1969–12Without a Song: Live in Europe 1969 Blue Note 2009 Live 1970–01 Red Clay CTI 1970 1970–07, 1970–08 Straight Life CTI 1971 1970–11 Sing Me a Song of Songmy with İlhan Mimaroğlu Atlantic 1971 1971–09 First Light CTI 1971 1972–10 Sky Dive CTI 1973 1973–03 Freddie Hubbard/Stanley Turrentine in Concert Volume One CTI 1973 Live 1973–03 In Concert Volume Two with Stanley Turrentine CTI 1973 Live 1973–10 Keep Your Soul Together CTI 1974 1974–04, 1974–05 High Energy Columbia 1974 1975–03 Gleam CBS/Sony 1975 Live 1975–03, 1975–04 Liquid Love Columbia 1975 1976 Windjammer Columbia 1976 1977 Bundle of Joy Columbia 1977 1978–03, 1978–04 Super Blue Columbia 1978 1979–02, 1979–03 The Love Connection Columbia 1979 1979–12 Skagly Columbia 1980 1980–07 Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival Pablo 1980 Live 1980–09 Mistral East World (Japan)/Liberty 1981 1981–03 Outpost Enja 1981 1981–05 Rollin' MPS 1982 Live 1981–06 Ride Like the Wind Elektra/Asylum 1982 1981? Splash Fantasy 1981 1981–11 Keystone Bop: Sunday Night with Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson Prestige 1982 Live 1981–11 Keystone Bop Vol. 2: Friday & Saturday with Joe Henderson, Bobby HutchersonPrestige 1996 Live 1981–12 Born to Be Blue Pablo 1982 1982–06 Above & Beyond Metropolitan 1999 Live 1982–08 Back to Birdland Real Time 1983 1983–06 Sweet Return Atlantic 1983 1983–12 The Rose Tattoo Baystate 1984 1985–11 Double Take with Woody Shaw Blue Note 1985 1987–01 Life Flight Blue Note 1987 1987–06 The Eternal Triangle with Woody Shaw Blue Note 1987 1988–10, 1988–11 Feel the Wind with Art Blakey Timeless 1989 1989? Times Are Changing Blue Note 1989 1989–12 Topsy – Standard Book Alfa 1990 1990–12, 1991–01 Bolivia MusicMasters 1991 1991–10 At Jazz Jamboree Warszawa '91: A Tribute to Miles Starburst 2000 Live 1991–12 Live at Fat Tuesday's MusicMasters 1992 Live 1992–12 Blues for Miles Alfa 1992 1994–08, 1995–01 MMTC: Monk, Miles, Trane & Cannon MusicMasters 1995 2000–10 – 2000–12 New Colors Hip Bop 2001 2007–12 On the Real Side Times Square 2008 1967 On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco Resonance Records 2025 Live Compilation Polar AC (CTI, 1975) - rec. 1971–73
As sideman Sortable table with main artist alphabetically as primal order.