Hubbard’s sound matures

It’s no exaggeration to place Freddie Hubbard at the top of the list of post-Miles Davis trumpeters. His playing from the early ‘60s into the late ‘80s set a standard that few could match.

The ‘90s, however, have been difficult years, with health problems and lip damage effectively taking Hubbard off the jazz scene. He began to return a few years ago, primarily in a partnership with the New York-based New Jazz Composers Octet. And on Tuesday at the Fenix Lounge in the Argyle Hotel in West Hollywood he made a special appearance with the group in celebration of his 65th birthday.

Hubbard’s fluegelhorn soloing on the first tune or two immediately made it apparent that he would not be performing with the explosive excitement of his early years. Nor would his range or his technique match the casual virtuosity of that period. Truth to tell, in fact, there were passages in which notes were missed and phrases truncated.

But there were other, more important aspects to the performance, ones that at times recalled qualities present in some of the later appearances of Frank Sinatra. Those qualities were maturity, phrasing and an undiminished imagination. Performing tunes of his own such as “Blues for Miles” and “Blue Spirits,” Hubbard played fewer notes than he might have in the past, but placed those notes in precisely the right spot for the greatest impact. His phrasing reached for the most propulsive parts of the rhythm, and his melodies set aside his multi-note past in favor of an epigrammatic but high-impact minimalism.