If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original.
DUKE ELLINGTONThere is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
-
-
If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!
DUKE ELLINGTON -
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.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Simplicity is a most complex form.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Of the One O’Clock Lab Band after hearing their performance, and sitting in with them at the White House: “I wish it were mine”.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
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 -
I like any and all of my associations with music: writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky.
DUKE ELLINGTON -
Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine.
DUKE ELLINGTON