Freddie Hubbard was a leader in
every sense on the bandstand
After-dark historians of the 1980’s will
no doubt remember the original Elario’s,
high above the Summerhouse Inn in La
Jolla, which was where Doug Webb—
then twenty-seven—really went to work
with Freddie Hubbard for the first time.
“Freddie didn’t have a book—you had to
know his stuff, so I brought all the fake
books, I brought every tune I ever heard
him play,” recalled Webb, who said that
at the rehearsal Hubbard asked him to
bring a flute the next day to play on, Up
Jumped Spring.
Doug drove back up to LA from San
Diego to get his flute for the next day
and did some practicing on Up Jumped
Spring, until he felt pretty good on it.
The following night, Freddie had just
finished his solo on the Clare Fisher
bossa nova Pensativa and was getting a
huge applause when he turned to Doug
and said, “Flute.” “What?” Doug
responded, to which Freddie repeated
the instruction with an expletive telling
him to play flute. “If you know that tune,
it’s not the easiest tune in the world”
said Webb, who was transposing the
changes down a whole step.
“So, you do what the leader says,” said
Webb, who, after thinking about the
experience, considers it one of “the
greatest gig of my life—but at the time, I
was too scared to enjoy it like I would
today, if I got the opportunity.” That
was in 1988, when “Freddie was at the
absolute peak of his playing,” recalls
Webb.
“What I learned with Freddie most,
probably, was his command of the
rhythm section—it was his show every
minute that it was going on,” said Webb.
“You hear a lot of trumpet players, but
they don’t really lead the rhythm section
the way Freddie could—basically, he was
the leader out there in every sense.”