Blue Note Records
2006
Here To Stay
About This Album
Blue Note had an all too frequent habit of sitting on sessions for years before releasing them, as was the case with this fine quintet outing from trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, which was originally recorded in 1962 but didn't see the light of day until 1976 when it was paired with Hubbard's Hub Cap session as a double LP, and then didn't see a stand-alone release until the mid-'80s. Teaming with Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Cedar Walton on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums (all but Jones were working together as part of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at the time), Hubbard oversaw an extremely smooth and fluid session, the kind that comes from musicians being very familiar with each other, and while Jones wasn't a part of the Jazz Messengers (although he did work with Blakey down the road as a part of Blakey's various drum suite projects), this was his third album session with Hubbard. Jones' value is immediately apparent on the opening track, "Philly Mignon," which is tailor-made for Jones' powerful and lyrical percussion style. A pair of Cal Massey compositions, "Father and Son" and "Assunta," are clear highlights here, as is the on-again, off-again waltz time of Hubbard's own "Nostrand and Fulton" (named after an intersection in Brooklyn), but the whole sequence has a wonderfully coherent feel, mixing the fresh and the familiar into a kind of loose, energetic suite. Hubbard's brassy, up-front trumpet style shines throughout Here to Stay, making this set somewhat of a lost (or at least delayed) gem. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 1,4 and 5)

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