In the movie Whiplash, Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) tells a young Miles Teller a story about how Charlie Parker almost got decapitated by a crash cymbal when he messed up on stage. Perhaps Freddie Hubbard should've thrown a cymbal at a heckling white audience instead of the phrase "Jive Motherf***er."
Having gone through a bad show with some instigating whiteys back in 1966, an audibly infuriated Hubbard can be heard lashing out at the whistles and interruptions made by the audience members.
Hubbard was performing onstage in Graz, Austria as a sideman for Sonny Rollins. Perhaps, even, the audience didn't understand him--or his art.
Freddie went on to say:
"F**k you white motherf***ers! F**K YOU white motherf***ers! Well, okay. I'll go home. If you don't like me, kiss my ass! That's right, cuz you jive. You jive. You jive. You white MOTHERF***ERS! You the ones who started this s**t! Lemme tell you - you the ones. F**k you! F**K YOU, you jive white motherf***ers! If you don't like me, KISS MY BLACK ASS! You motherf***ers! Fuck it, I don't care!"
And as Dangerous Minds writes via Johannes Probst on Big O:
"I was talking to James Spaulding, who was in that group, and he remembered the night vividly. Hubbard was drunk and started cussing out the audience. So in the intermission the police kicked in the dressing-room door and took both Hubbard and Spaulding into custody. James was very angry with Freddie, because he had to spend the night in jail."
An unfortunate racial climate, indeed, the story, over time, probably became a funny anecdote for the late-trumpet player.
And as always, we remember Hubbard fondly. Get down with Freddie below.
