"I quit drinking, so I can think clear. When you have chop trouble, drinking doesn't help the healing process."
"Jazz isn't like pop, where you sell millions of records with a hit. Your spirit and soul aren't important in pop music. But jazz is like classical music. If people like you, they'll remember you and you'll last forever."
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Source: New Musical Express Magazine, March 12, 1974.
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More quotes by Freddie Hubbard
"I advise all the young kids to not overwork. You can't be out there blowing hard. You have to pace yourself."
"Don't make the mistakes I made of not taking care of myself. Please, keeps your chops cool and don't overblow. If you are going to play hard, be sure to warm up. I'd get carried away trying to stay right with the momentum [of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers]. I used to try and play like Coltrane and solo for 30 or 40 choruses. It all caught up with me."
"I used to try to play like [Miles Davis], and Miles caught me copying him one night at Birdland. He said, 'Hey man, why don't you play some of your own stuff.' So, I finally did, because I had copied all his solos."
"Man, you'd be surprised how much I'm learning - not only about myself, but about the musicians who came before me. You don't realize at first when you listen to Armstrong's records how great this man was and how hard that Hot Five music was to play. After the experience of reading and playing those parts, I have an even greater respect for Louis Armstrong than before"
"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."