Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
DUKE ELLINGTONYou’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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My biggest kick in music -playing or writing- is when I have a problem. Without a problem to solve, how much interest do you take in anything?
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Critics have their purposes, 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 they did.
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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
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There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it’s successful; if it doesn’t it has failed.
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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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It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
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Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
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You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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The Europeans who went to Africa came back with “modern’ art. What is more African than a Picasso?
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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.
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A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
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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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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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There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit. Number2- Never forget rule number 1.
DUKE ELLINGTON