Freddie Hubbard - Open Sesame (Blue Note 80 Series 180g Vinyl LP)

Freddie Hubbard - Open Sesame | Vinyl LP - Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series, all-analog 180g (Kevin Gray mastering)

Open Sesame is Freddie Hubbard's first album as a leader, recorded for Blue Note in June 1960 when he was twenty-two and freshly arrived in New York from Indianapolis. Alfred Lion had spotted the young trumpeter's extraordinary technique and gave him a date, and Hubbard delivered, all fire and fluency across the horn. He is matched by the tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks, a quietly brilliant, still underrated player whose warm, vocal tone is the perfect foil, and the rhythm section is loaded: McCoy Tyner, not yet famous, on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Clifford Jarvis on drums. It is hard bop played with real snap, the punchy title track and "Hub's Nub" alongside a couple of standards including a swinging "One Mint Julep". For a debut it is remarkably assured, the sound of a major trumpet voice arriving fully formed.

Hubbard went on to become one of the defining trumpeters of the era, a Jazz Messenger and then a star at CTI in the 1970s, and Open Sesame is where it started. This is the Blue Note 80 edition, the all-analog reissue line Blue Note launched for its eightieth anniversary in 2019 and later continued as the Classic Vinyl series. Like those, it is mastered by Kevin Gray straight from the original tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.