By Joel Roberts
From hard bop to fusion, avant garde to disco, Freddie Hubbard and Donald Byrd have explored just about every style in or near jazz over the past 40 years. They've certainly hit their share of highs (and in Hubbard's case, very highs), as well as some notorious lows. But at their best, as represented by these two recent Blue Note/RVG reissues, they are two of the most compelling, exciting trumpet players in jazz.
Open Sesame, recorded in 1960, is Hubbard's auspicious debut as a leader. And though the 22-year-old looks even younger on the album cover photo, he was already a seasoned pro who'd made a name for himself on dates with some of the heaviest, cutting-edge company imaginable, including Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy.
Hubbard sticks closer to the mainstream on Open Sesame, as he leads a stellar hard bop quintet featuring the emerging piano star McCoy Tyner, the veteran bassist Sam Jones, tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks and drummer Clifford Jarvis. Despite his tender years, Hubbard already exhibits a remakable maturity and instrumental control, matching the raw power and fiery solos of his main role models, Lee Morgan and Clifford Brown, on up-tempo numbers like Brooks' title tune, while also showing a sweet touch on ballads like "But Beautiful."
Hubbard's only original composition on the album, "Hub's Nub," is the set's most inticate, complex offering, giving rise to some of his most creative solos, as well as a hint of where this gifted artist was headed. More than 40 years after its release, Hubbard's debut remains a stirring opening statement from a musician whose career would take many turns, including some wrong ones, but most of them leading to interesting destinations.
Donald Byrd has also taken some questionable turns during his long, eclectic career, but Slow Drag, a 1967 Blue Note effort, isn't one of them. A hard-bop stalwart since the mid-50s, who also made some forays into the avant garde/progressive scene, Byrd here sticks to the basics: gritty soulful, highly accessible jazz played at an exceedingly high level.
The album's centerpeice is the title tune, an infectious groove-based Byrd original that (like so many jazz recordings of the era) evokes Lee Morgan's "Sidewinder," a monster hit a few years earlier. Whether it's rehashed Morgan or not, "Slow Drag," is great fun (not least for the surprise vocals by drummer Billy Higgins) and awesome funk.
Along with solid treatments of the standards "Secret Love" and "My Ideal," the set features two noteworthy compositions from the brilliant pianist Cedar Walton. Byrd, Walton and alto saxophonist Sonny Red provide fine solos throughout, and the rhythm team of Higgins and bassist Walter Booker holds down the bottom to fine effect.
Though Byrd would soon trade in his jazz sound for a stab at commercial success on the R&B/disco charts, Slow Drag is strong evidence that his final days on the jazz scene (until a return to the fold in the 1980s) were worthwhile ones.
Freddie Hubbard - Open Sesame
Personnel: Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Tina Brooks, tenor sax; McCoy Tyner, piano; Sam Jones, bass; Clifford Jarvis, drums.
Track listing:: Open Sesame, But Beautiful, Gypsy Blue, All or Nothing at All, One Mint Julep, Hub's Nub, Open Sesame, Gypsy Blue.
Donald Byrd - Slow Drag
Personnel: Donald Byrd, trumpet; Sonny Red, alto sax; Cedar Walton, piano; Walter Booker, bass; Billy Higgins, drums, vocal.
Track listing: Slow Drag, Secret Love, Book's Bossa Nova, Jelly Roll, The Loner, My Ideal.
