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 ELLINGTONIf 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.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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There is no art when one does something without intention.
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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
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What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
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Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.
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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
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There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
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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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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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Everybody in Canada seemed to listen to what they enjoyed, and nobody could tell them what to like, or what was the popular, or what was the In thing. Even today, it is very hard to brainwash a Canadian.
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I’m sure critics have their purpose, and they’re supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what he did.
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If you have a great band with a mediocre drummer, you have a mediocre band. If you have a mediocre band with a great drummer, you have a great band!
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It’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
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It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
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I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
DUKE ELLINGTON