Freddie Hubbard Flip-Out

[eatsleeptrumpet]

WARNING: SEVERE FREDDIE HUBBARD BAD LANGUAGE AHEAD

I don't know if anybody has ever heard this, but it's absolutely priceless. At a concert in 1967, a rowdy audience got to Freddies nerves and he completely broke down in front of the crowd. This is what he said: (Things in brackets are shouts from the crowd)

"FUCK YOU WHITE MOTHERFUCKERS! FUCK YOU WHITE MOTHERFUCKERS! ("Go home!") Well okay, I'll go home. If you don't like me KISS MY ASS! That's right, cuz you jive, you JIVE, YOU JIVE! You white motherFUCKERS! YOU THE ONES WHO STARTED THIS SHIT! Lemme show you - you the ones - FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, you white motherFUCKERS! {starts crying} If you don't like me kiss MY BLACK ASS! YOU MOTHERFUCKERS! {drums start} Fuck it, I won't do it!"

Advil anybody? Freddie's famous for his temper, but this is unreal. It's on a CD called 'Celebrities at Their Worst' - Also has stuff from Buddy Rich, The famous 'guys get shirts' from Paul Anka, Barry White, Ray Charles, Tom Brokaw, and Bing Crosby ("Those bastards cut eight bars out of my song...") A must-buy.

[jaz_zak]

The down side of the 60's

[Phil Kelly]

Does this memorable CD contain the semi-stoned Julie London rants at a recording session ?


..or the REEEEEEALY stoned Troggs session exerpt?

( "jus' plak th' fookin' drum, y'now ..jus' a fookin' BEWM BEWM BEWM FOOKIN" BEWM ? ..non o' that fookin' fancy bullshite, y'now? etc etc )

[mr.gone]

Wow, I don't have a problem believing this at all. I went to see V.S.O.P. on their first tour in Cleveland @ The Front Row. My buddy went to the early show and I went to the late show. I didn't understand why Freddie wasn't on stage.

After talking to my friend I learned that Freddie flew into a tirade about fifteen minutes into the first show and walked off stage. Luckily, my friend took his tape deck and I have a cassette copy. The guy definitely lost his marbles.

"Miles Davis, Miles Davis, Miles Davis. I ain't Miles Davis motherfuckers!" He repeated that about five or six times before walking off. Sounds funny to listen to it but you can't help feeling bad for the guys in the band.

[Phil Kelly]

peruvian marching powder in excessivo ...

[Jimmy James]

Its funny but also a real shame because he is an absolutely incredible player. Whats he doing nowdays?

[jav]

Hey Mr. Gone, I was at that first show at the Front Row Theatre in Cleveland back in 1977. In all fairness to Freddie, he had missed his plane, and it was at first announced that he would not be performing that evening. Shortly after John Klemmer closed as the opening act, it was announced that Hubbard had caught a later flight and would indeed perform that evening. What an already frustrated (and as he has freely admitted in recent years- overindulger in the cocaine "star" lifestyle) Hubbard encountered was sound problems right from the start. After some impatient gestures to the booth, Freddie lost it and kicked the microphone stand aside, and then stormed up the aisle to the sound booth, where he could be heard lambasting the sound crew before departing the premises.
What was amazing to me was how professionaly the other four on stage handled the whole embarassing episode. Nary a beat was missed, and the show went on, fulfilling all the advance hyperbole, and nobody ever said a word about Freddie Hubbard's tirade!
An oddity to find this event written about here, as just yesterday I was listening to the V.S.O.P. cd from that tour, and trying to remember what the date of their appearence at the Front Row Theatre was. Whatever it was, I think that tour had much to do with the renaissance of traditional jazz in the eighties, the neobop movement that so many seemed to credit Wynton Marsalis with, actually started with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, and Freddie Hubbard doing this reunion tour. Later a young Marsalis replaced Hubbard in this group, and the media had their cult of personality figurehead to enshrine as the chosen one responsible for returning jazz to prominence. Not the way I recall it!

[jazzbluescat]

Hmmm, maybe there's truth to the rumor that Art Blakey wopped him upside the head in the restroom at the Jazz Workshop in Boston around '64.

[kh1958]

From what I understand, Freddie Hubbard damaged his chops in the early 1990s and has never recovered, so that on those fairly rare occasions when he plays in public now, it is at a much diminished level.

Originally Posted by Jimmy James

Its funny but also a real shame because he is an absolutely incredible player. Whats he doing nowdays?

[jav]

Freddie pretty much sticks to flugelhorn these days, and yes his abilities on the trumpet have been severly compromised. The hopefull news is that he did a gig at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles last summer, and although I did not see it, I have heard that he played trumpet, and was blowing some fire as in the old days. Hopefully he will make it into the recording studios again soon, and we all can judge for ourselves how his rehab is coming along. Incidentally Freddie almost died a year or so ago from edema, if I recall correctly. Such a shame such a great talent has now seemingly come to peace with himself, but is still paying the price for all those years of excess.

[tpt1]

sorry, double post... see below

[tpt1]

Originally Posted by jav

...a great talent has now seemingly come to peace with himself...

I have also heard this from people that have met him or talked with him in recent months. That's great. Freddie played a club in NY not too long ago (Jazz Standard, I think?) but I don't know how he sounded. I heard him play in his prime (late '70's/early '80's) and it was just plain unbelievable. I have also heard him several times in the last five years or so, which has been very dissapointing. I would love to hear him with his chops back in shape again.

[128Bit_Encryption]

None of this surprises me. I do recall a close friend telling me that Freddie lost his mind on stage at a former jazz venue in San Diego called “Lario’s” back in the 1980’s. I don’t recall the exact details of Hubbard’s impassioned vulgar diatribe against the audience but it pretty much falls in line with what has been reported in this particular posting.

[JSngry]

FWIW, that diatribe quoted in the opening post came from on a Max Roach gig, which just makes it that much more whatever it is.

[James]

Originally Posted by 128Bit_Encryption

None of this surprises me. I do recall a close friend telling me that Freddie lost his mind on stage at a former jazz venue in San Diego called “Lario’s” back in the 1980’s. I don’t recall the exact details of Hubbard’s impassioned vulgar diatribe against the audience but if pretty much falls in line with what has been reported in this particular posting.

That venue was "Elario's". Freddie was unfairly going after one of the players on the bandstand, as I recall --- and in disgust a couple of the other cats left the stage. On yet another occasion in S.D. he never made it to the bandstand after another lesser-known trumpeter (a notorious loadie) paid a visit to his suite.