DVD of the Day - "Freddie Hubbard: One Of A Kind"

DVD of the Day
Freddie Hubbard: "One Of A Kind" (Arkadia)

Filmed in 1980 for the Ad Lib TV series, these performances by trumpet master Freddie Hubbard present him backed by Billy Childs (acoustic & electric pianos plus Oberheim synthesizer), a young Larry Klein (heard mostly on acoustic bass, but moving to the electric bass on the funkyfied tunes "First Light" and "Love Connection"), drummer Steve Houghton (formerly with the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band, having joined Hubbard's quintet only three weeks earlier) and Buck Clarke (congas & percussion).

The sound quality is only regular, and the technical info is a mess! The tracklist has many mistakes, omitting the haunting ballad "Brigitte," dedicated to Hubbard's wife, played on the flugelhorn, and previously recorded on the albums "Keep Your Soul Together" (CTI, 1973) and "The Love Connection" (Columbia, 1979). In peak form, Freddie also offers bright renditions of "One Of A Kind", "First Light" (Billy Child's best Rhodes solo on the session, while Hubbard plays caxixi), "There Is No Greater Love" (shortned due to time limitations) and "One of Another Kind"(one of his tour-de-force numbers during the VSOP supergroup era, recorded on their "Live Under The Sky" album).

Bizarre note: an advertisement of the "Ad Lib" DVD series, included as a bonus feature, shows Hubbard playing the title track of his 1978 album "Super Blue", but the song is not included in the main program!?!