As for the Freddie Hubbard story in DB: I witnessed Freddie up close and in person, in several different situations, for a week last December, and wrote an honest story about his decline as well as the way we might think of what was to be his final chapter as a success or take it as a lesson. I’ll stand by that article. The work David Weiss did with the New Jazz Composers Quartet to support Freddie last year was admirable, and musical. Freddie’s complicity in his own ill health has not been reported by anyone, me included — but that goes to show how far most jazz magazines or any other outlets in America seem to be from publishing drealistic accounts of how artists live and die. You may take a look at the “author’s authorized version” of my DB feature on my website; there are few adjustments, but maybe they are telling. I felt for Freddie, I really did, and do. I’ve listened to him today, after learning of his death, and did an NPR obituary appreciation — just a little bit of notice of a man who was a jazz artist. As I write earlier today in my blog, he will be missed and he will be remembered.