Here to Stay [RVG Edition]

Performer: Freddie Hubbard
Artist: Wayne Shorter; Cedar Walton; Reggie Workman; Philly Joe Jones
Producer: Alfred Lion; Alfred Lion; Michael Cuscuna (Reissue)
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Cedar Walton (piano); Reggie Workman (bass); Philly Joe Jones (drums). Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey on December 27, 1962. Personnel: Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); Freddie Hubbard; Reggie Workman (bass instrument); Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Cedar Walton (piano); Philly Joe Jones (drums). Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder. Liner Note Author: Bob Blumenthal. Recording information: The Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, Cliffs, NJ (12/27/1962). Photographer: Francis Wolff. This two-LP set, which was released in 1979 as part of United Artists' Blue Note reissue series, brought back trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's early album Hub Cap, a sextet session with tenor-saxophonist Jimmy Heath, trombonist Julian Priester, and pianist Cedar Walton. Although that session (comprised of four Hubbard compositions, one of Walton's songs, and Randy Weston's "Cry Me Not") is excellent, it is the full album of previously unreleased material from an all-star quintet that is of greatest interest. Hubbard teams up with fellow Jazz Messengers Wayne Shorter (on tenor), Walton, bassist Reggie Workman, and (in Blakey's spot) drummer Philly Joe Jones for some advanced hard bop. Highpoints include the fiery "Philly Mignon" and a strong version of "Body and Soul." ~ Scott Yanow Blue Note had an all too frequent habit of sitting on sessions for years before releasing them, as was the case with this fine quintet outing from trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, which was originally recorded in 1962 but didn't see the light of day until 1976 when it was paired with Hubbard's Hub Cap session as a double LP, and then didn't see a stand-alone release until the mid-'80s. Teaming with Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Cedar Walton on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums (all but Jones were working together as part of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at the time), Hubbard oversaw an extremely smooth and fluid session, the kind that comes from musicians being very familiar with each other, and while Jones wasn't a part of the Jazz Messengers (although he did work with Blakey down the road as a part of Blakey's various drum suite projects), this was his third album session with Hubbard. Jones' value is immediately apparent on the opening track, "Philly Mignon," which is tailor-made for Jones' powerful and lyrical percussion style. A pair of Cal Massey compositions, "Father and Son" and "Assunta," are clear highlights here, as is the on-again, off-again waltz time of Hubbard's own "Nostrand and Fulton" (named after an intersection in Brooklyn), but the whole sequence has a wonderfully coherent feel, mixing the fresh and the familiar into a kind of loose, energetic suite. Hubbard's brassy, up-front trumpet style shines throughout Here to Stay, making this set somewhat of a lost (or at least delayed) gem. ~ Steve Leggett

Freddie Hubbard has always been a trumpet player of great facility, suppleness, and polish. Following his breakthrough with the Jazz Messengers in the late '50s, his burnished tone became a focal point of innumerable Blue Note albums of the '60s, both as leader and sideman. After a foray into fusion in the '70s, he returned to the hard bop of his early career.

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