Freddie Hubbard Tribute: A memorable display of a trumpeter's titanic legacy

The front line was exceptional in Sunday's Hubbard tribute. 

Three trumpeters in the front line — contemporary masters as they are — might have promised an excess of blasting. Fortunately, in Sunday's second set at the Jazz Kitchen, Pharez Whitted, Derrick Gardner, and John Raymond saved the onslaught for the climactic choruses of "Byrdlike," Freddie Hubbard's tribute to a slightly older trumpet master, Donald Byrd.

The spectacle closed out the Kitchen's 30th-anniversary week. It was a tribute to Hubbard, deceased but musically immortal Indianapolis icon on his 86th birthday. It was easy to be grateful for signs of restraint in the performance, which more than adequately captured the quality that establishment trumpeter Wynton Marsalis noted as most characteristic upon Hubbard's passing in 2008: exuberance.

The brassmen lined up for this tribute fortunately had innate good taste to add to the exuberance. In one of Whitted's solos, for instance, he started out softly, then backed away from the microphone when he wanted to add some thunderation to his turn in the spotlight. 

That's a far cry from my pained memory of the gang of lesser trumpeters I once heard in another city long ago. The group was called Chase, after its leader, Bill Chase, and its jazz-rock fusion persona meant that simultaneous blowing took place with several trumpet bells simultaneously making love to microphones. It was the loudest jazz concert I've ever had the misfortune to attend.

In contrast, Sunday's tribute performance included delicious spots of ensemble playing, many of them evidently spontaneous, and such sensitivity to balancing solo and group sounds that there was endless variety to take in with pleasure. Adding warmth as well as vigor on the tenor saxophone was Rob Dixon, who hewed to his predictably high standard. From the opening number, "Povo," on, it was clear that each trumpeter's personal style brought into play Hubbard's typical alternation of bold long tones and fantastic runs. The decorative elements always seemed to have something substantial to return to. 

Among other notable aspects of his genius, Hubbard was an excellent sideman. From the first days after leaving his hometown for New York, he could be counted on to make excellent contributions to other musicians' recordings, from Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" to John Coltrane's "Ascension," to take a couple of examples from each end of the accessibility spectrum. As was noted by Gardner in remarks to the audience, the presence of Oliver Nelson Jr. in the crowded club recalled Hubbard's influential solo on "Stolen Moments," the classic recording by Oliver Nelson Sr. and one of the great mainstream jazz evergreens. 

Hubbard suffered from a tendency to allow certain kinds of preparation and exactitude to lapse as he became an international star and a rich man who for a while lived next door on the West Coast to Arnold Schwarzenegger. That neighborly status was recalled in a brief anecdote Whitted told the audience. My one phone interview with Hubbard for the Indianapolis Star included the interviewee's expressed enthusiasm for the high-status Italian car he was planning to buy after he hung up. 

He was justifiably proud of the laurels he'd earned over the course of a successful career, but his ready-to-go exuberance took a toll on his lips, damaged from launching into gigs without sufficient warm-up. His recollection of working with homey J.J. Johnson, a known perfectionist, centered on the trombonist often reminding him "Tune up, Freddie! Tune up!"

What remains in the recorded legacy is far above any flaws that showed what he may have needed to maintain his early excellence. The compositions stand up, too, like "Dear John," a contrafact of the dedicatee John Coltrane's "Giant Steps." That achievement was celebrated in the intricacy and verve with which four hornmen dispatched the piece Sunday evening. And, as was typical throughout the set, the rhythm section of pianist Steve Allee, bassist Nick Tucker, and drummer Kenny Phelps provided sterling support.

Phelps put an authoritative cap on "Byrdlike" with a solo that built upon the Hubbardian exuberance of his bandmates. Tucker was especially imaginative filling in the spaces during Raymond's flugelhorn solo in "Up Jumped Spring," and Allee lent his keyboard mastery to shed expanded harmonic light upon the unison horn line of "Dear John."

On eclipse eve, then, the musical sun could hardly have shone brighter than it did in this Freddie Hubbard birthday salute.

[Photo by Rob Ambrose]