Customer Reviews

Sweet Return

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I have been waiting for the re-issue of this CD for years, and for years I have haunted the stores and scoured the internet in what had been a futile search. Finally the moment I knew had to come arrived.
I own a number of Freddie Hubbard albums, but I consider Sweet Return to be Hubbard at his best. I first bought it on cassette back in 1983 when it was originally issued, immediately liked it and wore out the tape as the years went by.
Hubbard is ably backed on Sweet Return by jazz giants Lew Tabackin on tenor sax and flute, Joanne Brackeen on piano, and Eddie Gomez on bass. The music ranges from frenetic on Calypso Fred, to smooth and romantic on the jazz classic Misty. My favorites are the title cut, which is a magnificent showcase of Hubbard's virtuosity, Whistling Away In The Dark, The Night Has A Thousand Eyes, and the Brackeen composition, Heidi-B, which showcases her stunning piano play, provides a vehicle for Tabackin to show off on his flute and gives Hubbard a launching pad from which to take us soaring to the musical stratosphere.
Since this CD arrived, I have played it over and over again, enjoying it just as much as I did when I first heard it nearly twenty years ago. This is one CD that belongs in every serious jazz lover's collection.

Ditto to everything Kurt said. I, too, had been anxiously waiting for this date to be reissued on disc. This is an absolutely stellar all-star band, and they're so tight that one gets the impression they'd been playing together forever. The communication between Hubbard & Joanne Brackeen (a truly great jazz pianist), in particular, is remarkable. Everyone on the date is a stud, and all (Lew Tabackin on tenor & flute; Eddie Gomez on bass; Roy Haynes on drums) are given opportunities to strut their stuff.

If I had to limit the Hubbard material in my collection to only one recording, this would be it.

Yes, this is the quality stuff. Swinging, tasty, tight. Interplay between this "all-star" pickup band is remarkable. Hubbard and Tabackin blowing over each other is a delight, and Tabackin's tone -- which sometimes sounds like a duck-call on other recordings -- is reined in and tasteful throughout. I keep coming back to this album over the years. One of Hubbard's best of the 80's period, alongside the fabulous Griffith Park Collection.

I was extremely pleased when this session was released on CD, since my turntable has been put away and my vinyl copy of Sweet Return is languishing in a box somewhere. This release satisfies in a variety of ways, not least of which is the excellent choice of material. Joanne Brackeen's piano is an added bonus. Thank goodness Freddie released this gem before he encountered the lip troubles that plagued him in his latter years. . .