Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Freddie Hill was born Frederick Roosevelt Hill on April 18, 1932 in Jacksonville, Florida. He studied cello and piano as well as trumpet. After four years at Florida A & M on a music scholarship and then spent two years in the army that brought him into contact with the Adderley brothers, among others. He moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue graduate studies at Los Angeles State College and gigs with many artists, including Gerald Wilson and Earl Bostic, followed.

Steady studio work gave him security thanks to Wilson, Matthews, Nelson and H. B. Barnum. However, his opportunities to record as a jazz soloist were few. Playing on the Gerald Wilson Pacific Jazz sessions put him in the company of many outstanding soloists. Hill is prominently heard on Leroy Vinnegar’s Leroy Walks Again!!! And Buddy DeFranco’s Blues Bag, which included Curtis Fuller and Art Blakey.

Besides working with Wilson and Vinnegar, Freddie recorded with Oliver Nelson’s Big Band, South Central Avenue Municipal Blues Band, and The Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra.

Leaving the Los Angeles scene in 1971, he married and moved to the desert. By the end of the decade studio work was drying up and trumpeter Freddie Hill transitioned a forgotten man, date unknown.

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