Freddie Hubabrd: Breaking Point (LP)

The "Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue" series grew out of Blue Note president Don Was' admiration for the exceptional Blue Note audiophile LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was therefore brought producer Joe Harley, aka "Tone Poet," on board to curate and oversee a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels. One of them is Freddie Hubbard's "Breaking Point!" Hardly any other album in the discography of the US jazz trumpeter captures the impressive range of abilities and versatility better than this one. "Breaking Point!" was recorded in May 1964. It was Freddie Hubbard's first album with a permanent "working" band consisting of Eddie Khan on bass and Joe Chambers on drums, James Spaulding on alto saxophone and flute, and Ronnie Mathews on piano. Shortly before, he had left Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers to form his own band. Their collaborative debut features six songs, including five original compositions. In the "stunning title track, the band shifts from free exploration to playful calypso and back again with ease. The rest of the program traverses modal jazz ('Far Away'), the blues ('Blue Frenzy') and breathtakingly beautiful ballads (Chambers' 'Mirrors') to create one of the most remarkable albums in Hubbard's formidable Blue Note oeuvre," reads the Blue Note description. This "Tone Poet Vinyl" LP was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) from the original analog master tapes and pressed on 180 g vinyl by Record Technology Inc. (RTI). It comes in a gatefold cover.