Jazz Icon Hubbard Dead at 70

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 29, 2008 9:02 PM CST
Jazz Icon Hubbard Dead at 70
2006 NEA Jazz Master Honoree Freddie Hubbard has his brow wiped by Jazz Master Nancy Wilson at an NEA induction at the New York Hilton Hotel January 13, 2006 in New York City.   (Getty Images)

Grammy-winning jazz giant Freddie Hubbard died today in Sherman Oaks, Calif., a month after having a heart attack, the AP reports. He was 70. Revered among trumpet players, Hubbard collaborated with legends like John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins as he established a blazing, hard-bop style that influenced a generation. "His playing is exuberant," said Wynton Marsalis, who admired Hubbard's "big sound" and "sense of rhythm and time."

Moving from Indianapolis to New York in 1958, Hubbard blossomed in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and became a top player alongside Herbie Hancock in the mid-1960s, the Guardian reports. He also excelled on avant-garde albums like Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch and Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz. His style slowed and softened in later years, but musicians still admired him. "The sound he gets on just one note," said trumpeter Chris Botti. (More jazz stories.)

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