Out of the Hub:
The Music of Freddie Hubbard
1. Our Own (Gibraltar) (Freddie Hubbard, lyrics by Catherine Whitney)
2. Up Jumped Spring (Freddie Hubbard, lyrics by Abbey Lincoln)
3. Out of the Hub (One of Another Kind) (Freddie Hubbard, lyrics by Evan Pittson)
4. Bright Sun (Lament for Booker) (Freddie Hubbard, lyrics by Suzanne & Jeff Pittson)
5. True Visions (True Colors) (Freddie Hubbard, lyrics by Suzanne, Jeff & Evan Pittson)
6. You’re My Everything (Harry Warren-Mort Dixon-Joe Young)
7. We’re Having a Crisis (Crisis) (Freddie Hubbard, lyrics by Suzanne Pittson)
8. Moment to Moment (Henry Mancini-Johnny Mercer)
9. Lost and Found (The Melting Pot) (Freddie Hubbard, lyrics by Suzanne, Jeff & Evan Pittson)
10. Like a Byrd (Byrd Like) (Frederick Hubcap, lyrics by Suzanne Pittson)
11. Betcha By Golly, Wow! (Thom Bell-Linda Creed)
Suzanne Pittson: voice
Jeremy Pelt: trumpet, flugelhorn
Steve Wilson: alto & soprano saxophones
Jeff Pittson: piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano
John Patitucci: bass
Willie Jones III: drums
Produced by Suzanne & Jeff Pittson
Recorded on August 26 & 27, 2008 at Systems Two, Brooklyn, NY
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Mike Marciano at Systems Two
Arrangements by Jeff Pittson
Cover artwork and graphic design by Evan Pittson
Vocalese lyric on “Bright Sun (Lament for Booker)” is based on Freddie Hubbard’s solo from the 1962 recording Hub-Tones.
Vocalese lyric on “We’re Having a Crisis (Crisis)” is based on Freddie Hubbard’s solo from the 1962 recording Mosaic by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.
Review of Out of the Hub: The Music of Freddie Hubbard
All About Jazz – New York
October 2010, pg. 21
Andrew Vélez
Her fun with the music is clear, irresistible and still further evidence that we have a fresh new jazzbird to celebrate.
Her voice is a high and sweet soprano. She can scat like nobody’s business. There’s some kinship with the sound of Diane Schuur but warmer. She credits John Coltrane, Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan as her influences, but like all genuinely innovative musicians, Suzanne Pittson’s creativity, musicianship and improvisational skills are off and away on their own, ably demonstrated in the company of her fine band. Out of the Hub: The Music of Freddie Hubbard, Pittson’s third recording, salutes one of her musical heroes and mentors. One cannot speak of Hubbard and his technically virtuosic trumpeting and composing without mentioning his participation in two seminal 1960 classics, Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz and, shortly thereafter, Oliver Nelson’s Blues and the Abstract Truth. The latter was saluted by and the title of Pittson’s first recording.
The opener, “Our Own” (based on “Gibraltar”), a Hubbard tune with Catherine Whitney lyrics, gets things off at a swinging pace. Sounding a bit like a vocalese cousin to the Annie Ross of the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross days, Pittson is light and fun as trumpeter Jeremy Pelt swings behind her husband Jeff Pittson’s sharp company on piano, solid have-a-goodtime music. Another Hubbard tune is the meditative “Up Jumped Spring”, with characteristically beautiful lyrics by the late Abbey Lincoln. The swinging is at a gentler pace, with Pittson’s piano and Willie Jones III’s brushes making for empathetic company. Pittson sings her own lyrics to Hubbard’s “Like A Byrd” (“Byrd Like”) and “We’re Having a Crisis” (“Crisis”), appealingly scatting, floating, soaring and speeding along. Her fun with the music is clear, irresistible and still further evidence that we have a fresh new jazzbird to celebrate.