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Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.

Duke Ellington

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.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Communication Dance Important Myself People
Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Freedom Goodness Measurement
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Meaning Yourself
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!
DUKE ELLINGTON

Greatness Mediocre Musician Yourself
What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
DUKE ELLINGTON

Important Meaning Music Yourself
There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Art Interest Money Music
Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Beautiful Music Reflection
Music, of course, is what I hear and something that I more or less live by. It’s not an occupation or profession, it’s a compulsion.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Live Music Myself Occupation Profession
Every man prays in his own language.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Himself Language Man Prayer
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

Association Audience Listening Music Perspective Play
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

Hear Myself Performance
It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line
DUKE ELLINGTON

Beginning Boundary Classical Decision Difficult Lying
I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline!
DUKE ELLINGTON

Limitation Myself Time
Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Loud Myself Open
Problems are chances for us to do our best.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Best Chance Ourselves Problem
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.
DUKE ELLINGTON

Country Enjoyment Listening Popular

Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.

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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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Popular Authors

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