Trumpeter Hubbard Hopes to Cool It : Jazz Great, Who Will Appear at Irvine Barclay, Is Known for an Intense Style

When you hear trumpeter Freddie Hubbard play, you’re witnessing one of the greats of jazz history.

How many players can claim performances and recordings with such giants as Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Bud Powell, Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey and J.J. Johnson?

These names weave their way in and out of conversation with Hubbard, who appears with his quintet Friday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

It was Blakey--the renowned drummer with whom Hubbard worked from 1961 to ’64 in a band that also included Wayne Shorter and Cedar Walton--who prepared the trumpeter to be a leader, as he has been since 1965, Hubbard said.

“Art always used to make me write something, come up with something new,” he said in a phone conversation from Hollywood Hills, where he and his wife, Brigette, live. “And I was constantly practicing, because Art kept you going, working hard all the time. I was never at home.”

The Hubbard song book, which was started during his Blakey tenure, is one of the fattest in jazz, boasting such now-classics as “Red Clay,” “Up Jumped Spring,” “Crisis,” “Thermo,” “First Light,” “Little Sunflower” and “Birdlike.”

During the chat, Hubbard, whose latest album is “Live at Fat Tuesday’s,” played snatches of his tunes on his noticeably out-of-tune piano. “Remember this?” he asked, then cleanly delivered the three-part melody of “Thermo,” an aggressive number recorded by Blakey in 1961.

When the conversation turned to younger players, Hubbard said he is particularly impressed with trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Tom Harrell but added that most younger players are missing an essential experience.

“They never got a chance to hear Bird or Bud” in person, referring to altoist Charlie Parker and pianist Bud Powell, two of the figureheads of the be-bop movement of the mid ‘40s to early ‘50s.

Hubbard, who came to New York from his native Indianapolis in 1958, is known for an intense, energetic style. But mashing a trumpet against his lip night after night can sometimes wreak havoc. This year, his chops have suffered, and he said he’s trying to take some advice that Miles Davis gave him years ago.

“I blow too hard and I have to cool it. I want people to hear me at my best,” he said. “Miles used to tell me not to play so many notes, and I’m finally seeing he was right, though I still play my solos too long sometimes.

Hubbard, who was full of sizzle and snap during a concert in Pasadena on Sunday, appears at the Irvine Barclay with saxophonist Doug Webb, pianist John Beasley, bassist John Leftwich and drummer Carl Burnett. All have worked with Hubbard before.

The trumpeter lamented his inability to keep one band together. “It seems that just as soon as we get tight from some work, we’re all off in different directions,” he said.

Ironically, Hubbard thrives on assignments that keep him from being able to work solely with his band. He’s in demand from a variety of employers, such as composer-bandleader Toshiko Akiyoshi, who used him on her new “Live at Carnegie Hall.”

“That’s my strength, being able to switch up and play different styles,” he said.

* Freddie Hubbard plays Friday at 8 p.m. at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. $16 and $20. (714) 854-4646.