Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
DUKE ELLINGTONSomehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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There is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!
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There is no art without intention.
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Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
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New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive Cadillacs, and beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of dollars hidden in their mattresses.
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Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.
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New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
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Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
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There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it’s successful; if it doesn’t it has failed.
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I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.
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Dancing is very important to people who play music with a beat. I think that people who don’t dance, or who never did dance, don’t really understand the beat. I know musicians who don’t and never did dance, and they have difficulty communicating.
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The artist must say it without saying it.
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There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit. Number2- Never forget rule number 1.
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You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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On becoming more acquainted with the word of the Bible, I began to understand so much more of what I had been taught, and of what I had learned about life and about the people in mine.
DUKE ELLINGTON






