On the Ginza

The Jazz Messengers: Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Cedar Walton (piano), Reggie Workman (bass) and Art Blakey (drums). From the album Ugetsu (1963).

Freddie Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter who played in bebop, hard bop and post-bop styles. In 1958 he moved to New York, where he played with important musicians, and in 1960 he recorded his first album, Open Sesame. In 1961 he recorded two albums with John Coltrane and another one with Wayne Shorter. Then he replaced Lee Morgan at Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.

Hubbard left Blakey’s group in 1966 to form his own bands. Throughout the 1960s he appeared as a sideman in the most prominent albums of that time, and although he never fully adhered to the free jazz style, he participated in the Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz and John Coltrane’s Ascension albums, which says a lot about a musician who learned to play with bebop.

The rhythm section makes an introduction and then the rest of the group joins to play the intense and energetic theme. Soon Shorter enters with short phrases that he links with mastery. Hubbard follows marking the notes well and including in his solo fast sections. Then Fuller appears playing quietly and peacefully, and then Walton enters with a balanced and serene exposure. To conclude, the group re-exposes the theme and ends it at once.