On Fire - Jazz from the Blue Morocco
Freddie Hubbard
Resonance Records HCD 2073 (resonancerecords.org/artists/freddie-hubbard)
Few jazz trumpeters have had the initial impact or sustained achievement of Freddie Hubbard. Born in 1938, he made a substantial impact in New York in 1960, in both hard bop circles and the avant-garde, recording his first date as a bandleader for Blue Note and appearing on Ornette Coleman’s landmark Free Jazz. In the following year, he joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and appeared on John Coltrane’s Olé and Africa/Brass. Merging elements of both schools in his own music, Hubbard also managed to combine the trumpet’s brassy power with the fluency of line associated with saxophonists.
On Fire is a two CD or three LP set recorded at a Bronx club called Blue Morocco in 1967. While one might lose the precise separation of a recording studio, a live recording has a special spontaneity and the real scale of a performance. Hubbard’s own contribution to the standard repertoire, the waltz Up Jumped Spring, stretches to 17 minutes, while separate traditional standards – Bye, Bye Blackbird and Summertime – combine for 40 lively minutes.
Hubbard is joined here by his regular working band, youthful musicians (ages range from 23 to 26) who would all go on to have significant careers. On Hubbard’s True Colors, he and tenor saxophonist Bennie Maupin press the envelope to explosive free jazz. Throughout pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Herbie Lewis and drummer Freddie Waits contribute to the overall excitement, making individual statements as well as supporting Hubbard’s creative energies.
