Self-deprecating to a fault, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard was the kind
of artist who thought one missed note could befoul an entire solo, in
the same way that a bad recording experience could muck up a record.
Thus, it’s not too surprising that on first listen, Hubbard disliked
the live tapings from his 1969 Jazz Wave tour. It wasn’t until recently
— shortly before his death, in fact — that Hubbard
revisited those old cassettes at the behest of jazz producer Michael
Cuscuna. What the two of them exhumed was nothing short of incredible.
The nine-city tour captured Hubbard at one of the high points in his
career, playing with a crackerjack band that included Louis Hayes on
drums, Roland Hanna on piano, and Ron Carter on bass. The setup was a
fluke. Hayes and Hubbard were the essence of the band; Hanna happened
to be there backing some of the other performers; Carter was a gun for
hire. By some alchemy, they brought all the right elements
together.
The result, Without a Song: Live in Europe 1969, is cribbed
from three different concerts. It has a romantic cast, partly because
Hubbard died last December, and partly because he’d peaked around that
time, both in terms of musicianship and technical skill. Hubbard was
writing and playing indefatigably, side-manning with people like John
Coltrane and Art Blakey, and even flirting with freer forms of music.
Without a Song offers only a small slice of that period. It’s
mostly a standards album — a fact one might attribute to the
lumped-together nature of that touring band, or to the brief sets that
didn’t leave a ton of room for spontaneity. But Hubbard nonetheless
makes each tune his own, rippling and susurrating on the ballad “Body
and Soul” (which will just break your heart) and swelling the notes on
“A Night in Tunisia” and Red Garland’s tune “Blues by Five.” From the
trumpeter’s perspective, it was just a freestyle. (Blue Note)
