Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.
DUKE ELLINGTONNew music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.
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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.
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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
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Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.
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Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
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You’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
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Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
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The artist must say it without saying it.
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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
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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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There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit. Number2- Never forget rule number 1.
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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.
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The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
DUKE ELLINGTON






