Dave Hubbard

This little known 1971 killer funky jazz set from Maryland saxophonist and flautist Dave Hubbard was his debut album and remained his only solo recording until he followed it up in 1985.  A respected sideman who’d played with Melvin Sparks, Ivan Boogaloo Jones and Charles Earland, Hubbard’s debut album exists somewhere between late sixties R’n’B flavoured soul jazz, the funky small-band organ combo jazz of ‘70s Prestige and Milestone labels, and the emerging jazz fusion sound. It’s a real musical sweet-spot where Sly Stone and James Brown were as influential as Coltrane or Bird, and it’s a great sounding album. Just over half an hour, from a highly focused, small (five piece) band who sound way larger, with seven, live-sounding tracks: a latin boogaloo song, a single straight up red hot bop tune, a couple of effortlessly swinging light soul-jazzers, and the rest bubbling, intricate, funky, locked in jazz tracks. A mostly forgotten jazz gem well worth digging up from Bob Shad’s Mainstream 300 series.