The blues tune ‘Moanin’ with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet

McCoy Tyner on drums

Freddie Hubbard was one of my favorite jazz and blues trumpet players.
Freddie Hubbard CDs

Freddie Hubbard Sheet Music

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.
-Freddie Hubbard

Eric was different. He would get up and practice with the birds in the morning on his flute. I thought that was different because it would be early in the morning and most of the cats were getting home from any jobs that they had at three or four in the morning. Eric was up bright and early.
-Freddie Hubbard

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

I got a scholarship on French horn and I went to a conservatory for about a year. I left there and went to New York.
-Freddie Hubbard

I had been playing with this band at Birdland on Monday nights and Miles was on the side of the stage. He looked up and I was playing his licks. I played this solo and I opened my eyes and saw him looking up at me, so all of the sudden, I had to come up with some of my own ideas.
-Freddie Hubbard

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.
-Freddie Hubbard

I met up with Art Blakey in 1963, I think. It was right after Lee Morgan left and I played with him for about two and a half years.
-Freddie Hubbard

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

I was living with Slide Hampton. Slide Hampton took us in and we were living over his house for about a year and a half.
-Freddie Hubbard

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.
-Freddie Hubbard

Man, they gave me a key to the city. Can you imagine going back to Indiana and getting the key to the city? So that made me feel pretty good.
-Freddie Hubbard

Now, Ascension was different, with all those free form playing guys, Archie Shepp, John Tchicai, these are brothers I never even thought about playing with.
-Freddie Hubbard

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.
-Freddie Hubbard

They always want to sell me as a hard bopper.
-Freddie Hubbard

We all kind of grew up together with Art Blakey because we all were young and he gave us a chance to write. We had to write something that was good and to sit up with a great guy like Art Blakey and watch him.
-Freddie Hubbard

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.
-Freddie Hubbard

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.
-Freddie Hubbard

Yes, I can play. I can play. I can’t play as long as I did and as hard, but I don’t think I have to.
-Freddie Hubbard