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 ELLINGTONOn 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.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is. Either you have it or you haven’t; there’s no proof of it.
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Yet, every time God’s children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.
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There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.
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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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By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.
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A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
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Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
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Selfishness can be a virtue. Selfishness is essential to survival, and without survival we cannot protect those whom we love more than ourselves.
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Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
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If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!
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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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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”.
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I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
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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 ELLINGTON