In the 1960s Freddie Hubbard was recruited for the most radical avant-garde records of the decade, and by 1978 he was handpicked to play the blazing solo on Billy Joel's Zanzibar. This episode explains how one musician inhabited both worlds, starting with his physical mechanics. Born in Indianapolis in 1938, he played mellophone, French horn, and tuba in the Arsenal Technical High School band, building the diaphragmatic support and facial control that later powered his tone. He hustled late-night sets at George's Bar on Indiana Avenue with Wes and Monk Montgomery while studying at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory under Max Woodbury, principal trumpeter of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Arriving in New York in 1958 at 20, he bypassed dues-paying to work with Philly Joe Jones, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, and Quincy Jones, recorded Open Se ...