On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco

This Record Store Day 2025 release is another revelatory slice of jazz history from the Resonance label. It was co-produced by Bernard Drayton, the trumpeters son Duane Hubbard, drummer Charley Drayton, and Zev Feldman. The set was recorded at the Blue Morocco, Sylvia Robinsons jazz hot spot in the Bronx. The great trumpeter Freddie Hubbard was backed by a stellar quintet that included saxophonist Bennie Maupin, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Herbie Lewis, and drummer Freddie Waits. Available as a digital download, two-CD, or triple-LP set, its accompanied by a 32-page booklet that includes liner notes by jazz scholar and critic John Koenig; it also includes interviews with Barron and Maupin, alongside testimonials from musicians influenced by Hubbard including Eddie Henderson, Charles Tolliver, Jeremy Pelt, Steven Bernstein, and others. Beautifully remastered, the sound in the package matches the music, which showcases Hubbard at a hard bop and progressive jazz peak. Six of these seven performances are long; the seventh, a reading of "Breaking Point," is shortest at just under eight minutes. "Crisis" is drawn from the 1962 Blue Note album Ready for Freddie. Driven by Waits Afro-Latin groove, he and Barron introduce Hubbards solo, which accents and underscores the harmony and propulsive rhythm. Maupins tenor break melds Brazilian samba, hard bop, and Afro-Cuban swing. Hubbard follows with the lilting, lyrical yet fluid, energetic "Up Jumped Spring," from Backlash. He uses a mute during his inquiring, fleet solo as Waits flows behind on cymbals and snare and Lewis accents the changes with Barron. Its followed by "Echoes of Blue," from the same album. Nearly 16 minutes long, the track is set in motion by the pianist and bassist (its also a showcase feature for Lewis). Hubbard and Maupin twin the lyric before moving slightly afield in the turnaround; their entwined interplay offers melodic depth. Lewis solo, with instinctive comping from Barron and Waits, is long, elegant, and interrogatory in harmonic extension. Disc one closes with the squalling, incendiary medley of "True Colors"/"Breaking Point," a striking showcase for Maupins tenor innovations before he goes head-to-head with Hubbard. The trumpeter reveals the influence and mastery of Miles Davis in a 23-minute, high-octane version of the standard "Bye Bye Blackbird." Despite the fast tempo, intense, syncopated tom-tom, and kick drum above Lewis fast bass walk, the tune is a virtuosic, lyrical workout painted in hard bop swing. George Gershwins "Summertime" is performed at an unusually fast tempo as the horns wind around the melody, sending it back and forth between them. Barron adapts their lyricism, painting it with elegance despite the fast-paced swing. Over nearly 25 minutes, it transforms into an illuminating modern jazz suite; each quintet member takes a long, creative, intelligent, hard-swinging solo before Hubbard and Maupin trade fours to slow it down near the end. Hubbard made many truly great records during his lifetime. That said, the intimate, innovative, dynamically charged performance captured in On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco stands with his best, and, in turn, is a Resonance catalog highlight. ~ Thom Jurek