Freddie Hubbard

★★★★ Music Is Here – Live At Studio 104 Maison De La Radio Paris 1973 WE WANT SOUNDS. CD/DL/LP

An exhilarating live capture of an artist on flaming form. In 1973, Freddie Hubbard was at the peak of his powers. He’d signed to Creed Taylor’s CTI imprint, stretched further into fusion and was much in demand. He had won a Grammy in 1972 for First Light, and was touring to celebrate his recent album, Sky Dive. The four tracks on Music Is Here were recorded live with his recently formed quintet, and there is a road-honed telepathy at work. It can be heard in the bottomless groove of Povo with the escalating interplay between Junior Cook’s sax and Hubbard’s trumpet, and in the looseness of a doubled-inlength The Intrepid Fox from

Red Clay. Hubbard plays throughout with glorious economy. Sky Dive is a masterclass, highlighting why Hubbard was so successful in bridging his roots in bebop with the Rhodes-driven funkjazz of the ’70s. Music Is Here is free-flowing, free-spirited spiritual jazz at its best.