One month after suffering a heart attack, jazz great Freddie Hubbard died yesterday (Mon., Dec. 29). Hubbard was a Grammy-winning trumpet player and jazz legend who collaborated with such musicians as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. He was 70.
According to the Associated Press, Hubbard died at Sherman Oaks Hospital north of Los Angeles. He had been hospitalized since suffering the heart attack a day before Thanksgiving.
Hubbard was born in Indianapolis, where he had studied at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music and with the Indianapolis Symphony.
Hubbard moved to New York in 1958 and hooked up with such jazz legends as Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley and Coltrane.
“I met Trane at a jam session at Count Basie’s in Harlem in 1958,” he told the jazz magazine Down Beat in 1995. “He said, `Why don’t you come over and let’s try and practice a little bit together.’ I almost went crazy. I mean, here is a 20-year-old kid practicing with John Coltrane. He helped me out a lot, and we worked several jobs together.”
Hubbard played on more than 300 recordings, including his own albums and those of scores of other artists. His earliest records included “Open Sesame” and “Goin’ Up” for Blue Note in 1960. He won his Grammy in 1972 for best jazz performance by a group for the album “First Light.”
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
