Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
DUKE ELLINGTONA problem is a chance for you to do your best.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
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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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Simplicity is a most complex form.
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There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit. Number2- Never forget rule number 1.
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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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A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
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The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he.
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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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I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.
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Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
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I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King’s son.
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The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
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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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Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
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There is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!
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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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Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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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.
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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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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.
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There is no art without intention.
DUKE ELLINGTON