Open Sesame [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Freddie Hubbard | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 29, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B00005UOKP
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,869 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sparkling Masterpeice, February 3, 2002

By 

A. K. L. "flamotte" (Steilacoom, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Open Sesame (Audio CD)

It's 1960. Freddy Hubbard still looks like a teen-ager. It's his first feature recording. His sidemen? An unknown pianist named McCoy Tyner (who would become Coltrane's accompanist, one of the great keyboard stylists). For tenor, try the new kid from North Carolina, Tina Brooks, who sounds like a reborn Lester Young. Delighted with their invitation to record for Blue Note, they blow fresh and clear with no pretension, and probably have no idea they're making a classic.

This set is deftly re-mastered by the great Rudy Van Gelder. Buy it NOW if you care about modern jazz or even about history. The blowing is tight, passionate yet cool. It shimmers with an innocence all too fragile, since Tina Brooks would self-destruct after only a handful of recordings and Hubbard would never find such clarity and lightness again. Brooks' compositions ('Open Sesame' and 'Gypsy Blue') are eloquent bop structures based in the blues with a Horace Silver tinge. They're destined to enter the canon of great bop recordings. Of no less merit is the funky Rudolph Toombs composition, 'One Mint Julip'. Hubbard's own 'Hub & Nub' gets a sharp treatment, as good as any later version. And the two ballads ('But Beautiful', 'All Or Nothing At All') are treated with maturity and lyricism. This CD has alternate takes of Brooks' compositions, as finely crafted as the other two versions.

We have an important addition to the canon of classic bebop here, no less beautiful for its youth and innocence. Right up there with Lee Morgan's 'Sidewinder' and Hancock's 'Takin' Off.' Rarely does such rediscovery come to us! And if you're a tenor sax player like me, here's a precious footnote to the short tragic history of Tina Brooks, who would have been a titan had he stayed this fresh and avoided the addictions that ruined so many of his troubled generation.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knotted, July 29, 2003

By 

Allan Suchinsky (Kensington, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Open Sesame (Audio CD)

You like tight? Listen to this exceptional session led by a trumpet player who receives nowhere near the recogition he richly deserves. This is absolutely a gem of release. Thank you Kenny Mathieson for turning me onto it in your "Hard Bop..." book.

There is not one filler on this CD. The overall work is brilliant: Hubbard is supurb; young McCoy Tyner shows why he would rise to the hights he has, Tina Brooks is as great here, if not better, than he is on the excellent Blue Note sessions he led; and Sam Jones and Clifford Jarvis are a perfect fit.

Listen to "One Mint Julep," you'll want another right away.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Freddie Hubbard!, February 17, 2005

By 

earl rlabaci - See all my reviews

This review is from: Open Sesame (Audio CD)

"Open Sesame" is, without a doubt, Hubbards best work for bluenote. His tone is clear and he gets the fullest sound out of his instrument. If there ever was a straight ahead Hardbop album recorded, this is it. The way Hubbard picked his sidemen, you can tell that he knew what he was doing, for example there is Tina Brooks with the sharp puncturing sound, McCoy Tyner with the swift technical fluidity, Sam Jones with the big beautiful sound, and Clifford jarvis with hard penetrating drive. Sometimes it seems that the sidemen are overshadowed by their brilliant leader yet they get their fair share too. The title track, which alternates between latin-samba and swing, has a catchy melody and has incredible solos from Freddie an Brooks. The real cooker, though, is the fiery version of the standard "All or nothing at all". Harold "Tina" Brooks was another unsung bluenote genius who lived much to short to gain any real recognition. Though this session belongs to Hubbard, without Brooks, Tyner, Jones, and Jarvis, it wouldn't be half as good as it is. "Open Sesame" is a killer session. Any fan of jazz should have this one.