Quotes from Freddie Hubbard

They always want to sell me as a hard bopper.

I'm going to Yoshi's. I'm taking a few gigs. I'm playing. I'm not going to play all the time. I'm going to take it easy and take it slow and warm up so I can come back.

When I got started in New York, if you were different from Miles & Dizzy it was very difficult.

Dizzy used to tell me I'm playing too hard. He'd say to not give everything. Miles told me that too.

That was the biggest thrill, going over to these guy's houses and having them want me to practice with them and they would show me a lot of stuff, which was really advanced stuff to me at my age.

I advise all the young kids to not overwork. You can't be out there blowing hard. You have to pace yourself.

I am in discussions with a label. We are talking about doing something.

I quit drinking, so I can think clear. When you have chop trouble, drinking doesn't help the healing process.

Well, my sister played trumpet. Can you imagine having a sister blowing the trumpet around the house, Fred? And my brother, he played piano. Everybody was playing some kind of music, so it was natural for me to get into it.

When you are trying to do something when you are getting started and you are trying to make records for the first time, you want it to be the best.

Dizzy used to tell me that I am playing too hard. He used to say to not give everything. Miles used to tell me that too.

When I got started in New York, it wasn't like it is now. If you were different from Miles and Dizzy, it was very difficult to make gigs and make money with your own style.

I had heard Ornette a couple of times, but I didn't really know where he was coming from until we started the record and it was beautiful, Fred. It opened up my mind.