Jazz Icon Hubbard Dead at 70

Grammy-winning jazz giant Freddie Hubbard died today in Sherman Oaks, Calif., a month after having a heart attack, the AP reports. He was 70. Revered among trumpet players, Hubbard collaborated with legends like John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins as he established a blazing, hard-bop style that influenced a generation. "His playing is exuberant," said Wynton Marsalis, who admired Hubbard's "big sound" and "sense of rhythm and time."

Moving from Indianapolis to New York in 1958, Hubbard blossomed in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and became a top player alongside Herbie Hancock in the mid-1960s, the Guardian reports. He also excelled on avant-garde albums like Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch and Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz. His style slowed and softened in later years, but musicians still admired him. "The sound he gets on just one note," said trumpeter Chris Botti. (More jazz stories.)