Label: Blue Note – BST 84135
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1985
Style: Hard Bop, Improvisation
Recorded on December 27, 1962 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey.
Design [Cover] – Reid Miles
Liner Notes – Peter Keepnews
Producer – Alfred Lion
Recorded By [Recording By] – Rudy Van Gelder
This album was scheduled for release as BST 84135
in 1963 but was never issued.
It first appeared as part of a Hubbard double album
(BNLA 496-2) in 1976.
It is issued here for the first time with the
original Reid Miles cover from 1963.
A1 - Philly Mignon . . . . . . . . . . 5:28
(by
– Freddie Hubbard)
A2 - Father And Son . . . . . . . . . . 6:34
(by
– Cal Massey)
A3 - Body And Soul . . . . . . . . . . 6:25
(by –
Heyman, Eyton, Green, Sour)
B1 - Nostrand And Fulton . . . . . . . . . . 7:07
(by
– Freddie Hubbard)
B2 - Full Moon And Empty Arms . . . . . . . . . . 5:25
(by
– Kaye, Mossman)
B3 - Assunta . . . . . . . . . . 7:05
(by –
Cal Massey)
Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone
Cedar Walton – piano
Reggie Workman – bass
Philly Joe Jones – drums, percussion
Scheduled for release in 1962 and then effectively
shelved until 1986, “Here To Stay” is another of the seminal Blue Note albums
that failed to see the light of day at the time of recording. Perhaps this
reflects the difficult choices that Albert Lion had to make too often in order
to keep a small independent record label afloat.
“Here To Stay” is a fine and early example of
Freddie Hubbard, then aged only 24, as a fully formed imaginative voice in
jazz. The band - Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Cedar Walton (piano); Reggie
Workman (bass); Philly Joe Jones (drums) – offers an ideal platform; all these
musicians except Philly Joe Jones were working together at the time with
Freddie Hubbard in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and the understanding they had
developed shows. But it is Freddie Hubbard’s trumpet playing that really
impresses; no wonder that his inventiveness on the instrument is still so
admired today.
“Philly Mignon”, the opening track and a Freddie
Hubbard composition is all about virtuoso trumpet licks, played fast, perhaps
too fast. The other Freddie Hubbard composition on the album, “Nostrand And
Fulton”, however is waltzy and fluid. “Father And Son”, the first of two Cal
Massey compositions starts out as lightweight samba based bluesy ballad but
then goes through interesting transitions, finally emerging as a loose-limbed
good time feel blues. The second Cal Massey composition, “Assunta” has Wayne
Shorter sounding very Coltrane-like and seems to be mainly a vehicle for him until
Freddie Hubbard interjects with a characteristically fluent solo that changes
the pace and direction. “Full Moon And Empty Arms” dates from 1946 and is based
on a melody from the third movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C
Minor with words and arrangement by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman. It was recorded
by Frank Sinatra and is not highly regarded. Freddie Hubbard and the band here
go some way to rescuing it but without complete success.
The stand out track is a fine version of the
standard “Body And Soul”. Comparison with Coleman Hawkins’ classic 1939 tenor
sax version of the Johnny Green song or even with John Coltrane’s 1960 version
on “Coltrane’s Sound” shows just how far Freddie Hubbard had come with a truly
modern appreciation of the song and how to interpret it for trumpet.
“Here To Stay” is a very welcome addition to the
Freddie Hubbard catalogue and is highly recommended.
If you find it, buy this album!
