Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Yet Another One Bites The Dust


Freddie Hubbard, one of the great trumpeters of the 1960s, has just died, and so I need to modify my list of musicians whose passing this year meant the most to me. Hubbard, I think, was one of the best examples of the brilliant sideman. His solo records were, even at their best, no more than quite good, but his contributions to the projects of others could be outstanding. Herewith extracts from Fee Fi Fo Fum on Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil (1964), Eye of the Hurricane on Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage (1965) and the lovely Stolen Moments on Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth (1961).

11 comments:

goneforeign said...

Thanks, nice collection, particularly like Stolen Moments, haven't heard that for years. I saw him quite a few times when I lived in LA.

goneforeign said...

As a beekeeper you might find this article interesting.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/12/30/MNNH150RBN.DTL

Abahachi said...

Very interesting, and good to see the issues being discussed at such length. It's a significant problem over here in Europe as well. Whether or not you believe that the poor innocent distribution companies are being bamboozled by the evil Chinese, it's another good reason to source your honey from local independent producers, even at a major mark-up. If you can find any, that is; after yet another disastrous year for bees, I'm going to be lucky if my stocks are sufficient to see me through the year, and I certainly don't have a surplus to sell.

nilpferd said...

RIP Freddie Hubbard. Better add a recording he made under his own name, which was very fine.
http://www.lastfm.de/music/Freddie+Hubbard/Red+Clay/Red+Clay
Happy new year, everyone.

steenbeck said...

Nilpferd! Happy New Year!!

goneforeign said...

Abahachi & welcome back Nilp:
Just another 'honey' detail.
When my cast came off a couple of weeks ago there was still an open sore on the incision, it was taking forever to heal.
Based on seeing my sister in Norfolk use it a few years back I bought a jar of active Manuka honey at the local bee supplies shop, [expensive] it's from the East Cape of NZ and is distributed worldwide by Lescaro Health & Beauty, Bridgewater, Somerset; places possibly familiar to both of you.
I applied it directly to the wound and It worked instantly, it was healed in two days! If you're curious google it.

May1366 said...

First time online since getting back from a (for me) webless London and first spillage of 2009 and it's a sad one, but with gratitude to Abahachi for marking this last goodbye from 2008. I feel I'm repeating myself from eulogies for Whitfield, Stubbs and others, but by Christ, I loved Freddie Hubbard. Twist my arm and I'll concede that Miles and up to half a dozen other trumpeters were possibly better than Hubbard, but there's not one whose sound so stirred me from first note to what we now know was the last.
The first time I came across Blues and the Abstract Truth felt like I'd stepped into a bedroom that had been designed for me: Eric Dolphy, Paul Chambers and Freddie Hubbard, three of the instrumental voices that had spoken most directly to me when I was first discovering jazz, all together. And when I think about the start of so many Hubbard solos, it's barely even sounds that come to mind - it's flashes of light, flower buds exploding into full bloom, the heart quickening just enough to remind me that I'm alive.

There's a young lad sleeping upstairs, a fortnight away from his 8th birthday, with an underemployed trumpet lying in its case waiting the next of his sporadic lessons in school. I've got a feeling his stack of birthday presents is going to increase in size by the degree of one CD this year.

That apart - happy new year, folks!

nilpferd said...

Cheers Steenbeck, we're still on holiday for a few days yet, hence my limited posting. We have a penguin photo for you. A new Clip Joint is up, btw.
GF, likewise. Nice story about the Manuka honey, we use it a lot. May, very moving description. My favourite Freddie Hubbard moment is the solo on the title track to Maiden Voyage, where he combines aching lyricism with an explosion of noise which somehow fits perfectly within the serenity of the piece and the sea voyage theme, like a sudden squall.

Abahachi said...

May and nilpferd, I dearly wish I could write about music with your eloquence and poetry, the way that I can hear what you mean as I read, rather than having to process everything into abstract intellectual concepts.

Putting honey on wounds is a very old remedy; it has antibiotic properties, and it's hygroscopic so absorbs moisture and promotes healing.

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