Hubbard’s Back With New Way of Playing

Is Freddie finally ready?

Hoping he’s at the end of the health and personal issues that have plagued him for the past two years, trumpet great Freddie Hubbard steps onto a Los Angeles nightclub bandstand for the first time in six months when he appears Tuesday through May 28 at Catalina Bar & Grill. He performs with the B Sharp Jazz Quartet.

Hubbard’s specific problem has been a large sore on his upper lip that grew until it prevented him from playing at all. The growth was lanced last year, and a biopsy was taken that tested benign. Then came the necessary rest.

For once, Hubbard says he took the advice of friends such as Sonny Rollins and J.J. Johnson and stayed away from the horn for a good two months. “They told me, ‘Don’t rush it. It’s tissue and if it doesn’t heal, it won’t get back to where it was,’ ” he says. “My chops are better, though they’re not yet 100%.” He then picks up his horn and blows a long tone that sounds fairly strong, and follows it with a jazz phrase that has some listeners associate with his art.

After his layoff, he also changed his approach to the horn, playing with less lip pressure. “Before, I pulled the horn back into my chops, and when I was young and bullish, I could do that. Now I’m letting my wind do more of the work,” Hubbard says.

For his return to Catalina’s, Hubbard will perform as a guest artist with B Sharp, rather than as a leader. B Sharp will play a handful of numbers during each set and then the trumpeter will join them for three or four tunes. (B Sharp and Hubbard did a similar one-night show at the Wadsworth Theater in January.)

The collaboration was suggested to Hubbard by Herb Graham Jr., B Sharp’s drummer and co-leader.

“I met him a long time ago in Japan, and he wanted to get together and play,” Hubbard says. “These young fellows know my music and I think it’s a good idea to play with them until I build up, become stronger, so I can play the whole set. It’s better than playing with my own band because then you forget how hard you’re playing, and you stretch out knowing that [the lip] is still not happening yet.”

Information: (213) 466-2210.

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An Empty Chair: Jazz lost one of its finest players when alto saxophonist/clarinetist Marshall Royal died of cancer on May 8. Royal was 82 and had been living in Culver City.

Along with players such as Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter and Willie Smith, Royal was considered a giant of the alto saxophone, possessing a creamy tone and a melodic, rhythmically-on-the-money solo approach that sparked bands led by Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Bill Berry, Frank Capp and Nat Pierce, Les Hite, Curtis Mosby and, for a brief period, Duke Ellington.

“He was unquestionably the greatest lead alto saxophonist of his time. He defined the art with a sound and style that made any band in which he played his band,” said Frank Foster, current leader of the Count Basie Orchestra, with which Royal played from 1951 to 1970.

Royal was born in Sapulpa, Okla., but moved to Los Angeles as a youth and resided here all his life. He began working as a professional when he was 13, joined Curtis Mosby’s band at 17, and Hite at 19, staying with him until 1939, except for a short hitch with Ellington in 1934. In 1940, he was instrumental in establishing the sound of Hampton’s orchestra, and as he was with Basie, appearing along with Foster, Frank Wess, Thad Jones and Joe Williams on such classic Roulette and Verve Records albums as “Basie,” “April in Paris,” “Basie in London” and “Live at Birdland.”

Leaving Basie in 1970, Royal stayed in Los Angeles, doing studio work, joining Bill Berry’s Ellington-styled L.A. band, the Juggernaut, and making occasional albums for Concord Jazz.