Heath and Hubbard Represent for the Leftside

Label M Records will release the fourth installment in the Live At The Left Bank series at the end of this month. The recording, entitled Jam Gems, is a Jimmy Heath/Freddie Hubbard quintet date at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore, Maryland. The rhythm section on this date, Wilbur Little (bass), Bertell Knox (drums) and Gus Simms (piano), help Heath and Hubbard through five tunes including “Autumn Leaves” and “Lover Man.”

In the spring of 2000, the Left Bank Jazz Society struck a deal with Label M Records to begin releasing recordings of live shows from the ’60s and ’70s. The Society, which is still alive and well at their new location in the Teamsters Union Hall, was formed in 1964 by a group of young men who met in South Baltimore and formed an organization devoted to creating an awareness of jazz through concerts, jam sessions and road trips to festivals and nightclubs where jazz was featured.

The original recordings by the society have never been released until now. To their credit, the Left Bank Jazz Society and Label M records have managed to preserve a period and a movement defined by Jazz masters like Stan Getz, Cedar Walton, Jimmy Heath and Freddie Hubbard.

Originally Published January 25, 2001