Artist: Freddie Hubbard
Title: On The Real Side
Year Of Release: 2008
Label: Four Quarters Records
Genre: Jazz
Quality: Mp3 / 320kbps
Total Time: 52:09 min
Total Size: 117 MB
Tracklist
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01. Lifeflight
02. Up Jumped Spring
03. Theme For Kareem
04. On The Real Side
05. Take It To The Ozone
06. Skydive
07. Gibraltar
Like its predecessor, 2001's New Colors, On the Real Side, which again pairs Freddie Hubbard with the New Jazz Composers Octet (David Weiss, trumpet; Myron Walden, alto sax; Jimmy Greene, tenor and soprano sax; Steve Davis, trombone; Norbert Stachel, baritone sax and flute; Xavier Davis, piano; Dwayne Burno, bass; and E.J. Strickland, drums, plus guests Craig Handy, tenor sax on two tracks and flute on a third, and Russell Malone, guitar on the title tune), is in essence a victory lap for the veteran horn player, whose chops are admittedly diminished as he reaches age 70. Annotator Bill Milkowski makes no bones about that and even quotes Hubbard to the effect that "I gotta resolve myself to be happy with what I can do now...play a couple of choruses and get out." As such, this album -- with the exception of the newly written title track -- consists of re-recordings of Hubbard favorites, functioning as a tribute disc on which the honoree sits in. In that sense, it might be compared to the latter day recordings of Brian Wilson in the pop realm, in which a group of technically proficient Beach Boys fans efficiently plays the composer's music around him as he pitches in. At that, the result is not unpleasant, and Hubbard even manages some good solos, or at least parts of solos, before giving way to his acolytes. It is notable that he only plays flugelhorn, especially since he is glimpsed holding a trumpet on the album cover. ~William Ruhlmann
