A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
DUKE ELLINGTONGray skies are just clouds passing over.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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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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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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You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
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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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I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King’s son.
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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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I don’t need time, I need a deadline.
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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
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There is no art when one does something without intention.
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My mother told me I was blessed, and I have always taken her word for it. Being born of – or reincarnated from – royalty is nothing Like being blessed. Royalty is inherited from another human being; blessedness comes from God.
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Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine.
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Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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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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There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
DUKE ELLINGTON