Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
DUKE ELLINGTONThere is no art without intention.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
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The artist must say it without saying it.
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I don’t believe in categories of any kind, and when you speak of problems between blacks and whites in the U.S.A. you are referring to categories again.
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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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The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
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Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
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There are two kinds of worries – those you can do something about and those you can’t. Don’t spend any time on the latter.
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Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
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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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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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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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It’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
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New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
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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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Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.
DUKE ELLINGTON