These 16 iconic jazz albums from 1959-66 show Hubbard’s astonishingly diverse and flexible talent as a young sideman. Many contemporary jazz musicians consider this period the greatest era of jazz. In addition to being an essential element musically, Hubbard's presence on the more avant-garde albums on this list is often ambassadorial.
Paul Chambers/Cannonball Adderley Go
Art Blakey Caravan
Art Blakey Free For All (I could really list all the Blakey/Hubbard albums of course)
Eric Dolphy Outward Bound
Eric Dolphy Out To Lunch
Ornette Coleman Free Jazz
Oliver Nelson The Blues and the Abstract Truth
Andrew Hill Pax
Wayne Shorter Speak No Evil
Wayne Shorter The All-Seeing Eye
Herbie Hancock Empyrean Isles
Herbie Hancock Maiden Voyage
Sonny Rollins East Broadway Run Down
John Coltrane Acension
Sam Rivers Contours
Bobby Hutcherson Components
Hubbard’s own albums on Blue Note and Impulse! from this era are also classics; I don’t have particular favorites, they are all good. Often Hubbard’s early writing and bandleading suggests an experimental edge, nowhere more obvious than on the 1970 Ilhan Mimaroglu-masterminded Sing Me a Song of Songmy on Atlantic.
In the “stadium jazz” era of the 70’s, Hubbard repeatedly showed that he was one of the most magnificently assured and powerful soloists of the decade. His CTI output like Red Clay and Straight Life holds up well today and he periodically threatens to steal the show away from Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock on several albums with V.S.O.P.
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Trumpet battles old and new: Night of the Cookers with Lee Morgan (1965), Double Take and The Eternal Triangle with Woody Shaw (1985 and 1987)
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Most ludicrous Hubbard solo: “Just One of Those Things” from 1969’s The Hub of Hubbard. I’m not saying this is good music - it is just too fast and messy in the ensemble - but it is certainly something. “Without A Song” from the same album show how Hubbard’s time is so good that he can swing the band (which constantly verges on falling apart) from the trumpet on down.
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A must-read: Randy Brecker’s top 12 Freddie Hubbard solos.
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(Hubbard at Harvard in 1975 - surely they are playing "Red Clay!")
