It is with heavy heart that I remember one of the greatest Jazz Trumpet Players of our time…
Freddie Hubbard.
He was a friend, an inspiration, a mentor and one of the most soulfully-sensitive players the world has ever heard. He was a genius…indeed he will be missed.
Now, this story begins back-in-the day…The year was 1975…the venue, Concerts at the Grove, Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, California.
I was playing a club just down the street called the Red Onion. Our R & B group was pretty popular, so the line of people waiting to get into the club was long. It stretched along Wilshire Blvd. and all the way around the block. We played five sets a night (six nights a week), so once I learned that Freddie Hubbard was playing just down the street, I couldn’t wait for the night to end. After the gig, I literally ran down the street in hopes of maybe…just maybe catching part of a set. As good luck would have it, Freddie had a warm-up act which meant that I was going to hear his entire session.
Incidentally, the warm-up act was a new up-and-coming shining star by the name of Natalie Cole.
Natalie had just released her single, “Inseparable,” and it was making a serious climb up the charts. I remember that she sounded heavenly (even from my perch, just inside the theater). She had a swinging band, complete with two back-up singers named, “Sweetness and Understanding”.
Finally, after one of her songs ended, I got up the nerve to run down the aisle (gig-bag and enclosed-horn in hand) and found a seat on about the fifth row. I had made it! Ms. Cole had two numbers left before Freddie and his band took the stage. She, her band and her back-up singers were simply glorious. I later could easily see why her release climbed to number one on the charts.
After a short intermission, the curtain opens and there’s Freddie…counting off the first number and the band sets a groove thats out of this world. Freddie was absolutely incredible. He was in great shape and so were his chops. The first set was actually mesmerizing. As you may know, 1975 was a period when most trumpet players were experimenting with electrics and, with effects. But when it came to ballads, Freddie played unplugged so to speak; no electronic effects. What a beautiful sound it was!
Now you may already know this, but every horn player has their own sound….some more recognizable than others. Freddie’s sound was one in a million and talk about beautiful! He filled the theatre with that sound so rich that you could almost breathe it!
Later, on his next to last number, he looked straight at me (with my long hair, beads and gig-bagged horn) and said, “This one’s for the rock and roller.” I was elated that he would recognize me as a fellow trumpet player. I’m certain that he was just giving a youngster the thrill of a lifetime. Obviously, I was respectfully there to see my master. In fact, I’m certain that I must have looked incredibly funny as the wide-eyed, gaping mouthed youngster that I was. To this day, I only know that he was really speaking to me, because of what happens next.
After the final number, I waited in my seat to see if there was any way that I might get a chance to meet him. My trombone player, who had finally joined me during the set, went to the side of the stage and told someone in the band about me (knowing what it meant to me to even be in Freddie’s presence). Well, the next thing you know, I was being invited backstage to meet Freddie Hubbard, his wife and the entire band! I was in awe!
It was then that he confirmed that I was the rock and roller that he had mentioned. He even made a joke about the long-line of people waiting to get into the Red Onion, saying that “he thought that they were there to see him” as he rode by in his limo earlier on the way to the Grove.
Finally, the next thing I know, we’re comparing horns, mouthpieces etc. Imagine my surprise when I find out that Freddie was playing on a Giardinelli - 6M mouthpiece, because I was as well. The odds of that are astronomical. Needless to say, I was spellbound and we both got a kick out of the coincidence…or was it? There’s no doubt that, as young up-coming trumpet player, I was trying to sound like my inspiring master.
Anyway, the entire night was so magical that I will never forget it. Later on, I realized that it really wasn’t a dream and it really did happen when, about five years later, Freddie came to my home town and joined by my musicians, played a two-night engagement.
Yes, I think it’s safe to say that…I’ll Remember Freddie.
Ron Tuckfield - part one, of two parts<
