“Breaking Point!” was recorded in May 1964. It was Freddie Hubbard’s first album with a permanent “working” band consisting of Eddie Khan on bass and Joe Chambers on drums, James Spaulding on alto saxophone and flute, and Ronnie Mathews on piano. Shortly before, he had left Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers to form his own band.
Their collaborative debut features six songs, including five original compositions. In the “stunning title track, the band shifts from free exploration to playful calypso and back again with ease. The rest of the program traverses modal jazz (‘Far Away’), the blues (‘Blue Frenzy’) and breathtakingly beautiful ballads (Chambers’ ‘Mirrors’) to create one of the most remarkable albums in Hubbard’s formidable Blue Note oeuvre,” reads the Blue Note description.
This “Tone Poet Vinyl” LP was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) from the original analog master tapes and pressed on 180 g vinyl by Record Technology Inc. (RTI). It comes in a gatefold cover.