CiTR

The great trumpeter Freddie Hubbard died at age 70 in 2008 and he is sorely missed to this day. He is a musician who always gave his all every time he picked up his horn. Freddie could play with musicians who were stretching the Jazz language like Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Andrew Hill and contribute to their concept and then turn around and play with Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans and contribute to their concept. Freddie could play anything and always seemed to play his best in whatever context. Blue Note's owner, Alfred Lion heard Freddie in 1960 at a Monday night jam at Birdland in New York and signed 22 year old Hubbard to a contract which lead us to tonight's Feature. This is Freddie's sophomore album and it's called "Goin' Up".
Freddie surrounded himself with seasoned veterans with the exception of a young pianist named McCoy Tyner, who was on Freddie's first Blue Note date, like Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone. Hank also contributed two tunes to the date. On bass and drums were Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones....there are none better for the type of music Freddie wanted to present. Trumpet giant Kenny Dorham was also asked by Freddie to contribute two tunes to the date and they are the most exciting tracks of the set. A ballad and a minor key blues by Freddie complete the set. "Goin' Up" is a lesser known classic but one of Hubbard's early best dates.