Freddie Hubbard: Open Sesame (Blue Note 80 series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Blue Note 80 series edition puts the stereo album on 180g vinyl. The Penguin Guide to Jazz placed it in its Core Collection, and the band includes Tina Brooks and a young McCoy Tyner.

This edition

• Blue Note 80 series
• 180g vinyl
• Stereo

About the album

Some trumpeters take years to find their sound; Freddie Hubbard turned up with his already fitted. He was 22 when he walked into Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on June 19, 1960, and Alfred Lion produced the session, Hubbard's first as a leader.

Tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks wrote the title track and "Gypsy Blue," and his dark, bluesy tone is the perfect foil for Hubbard's brassy fire. McCoy Tyner, soon to make his name with John Coltrane, plays piano, with Sam Jones on bass and Clifford Jarvis on drums. "Open Sesame" charges out of the gate, "But Beautiful" shows off a ballad touch well beyond Hubbard's years, "One Mint Julep" gets a cheeky hard-bop makeover, and his own "Hub's Nub" closes things at a gallop.

DownBeat's John A. Tynan heard a youthful aggression in it that spoke well for the future of small-group jazz, and he called that one correctly. As debut albums go, it's a bit like turning up to your first day at the office and being made a partner by lunch.

Also at Kops: more Freddie Hubbard on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 7745066), a reissue of the 1960 album.