What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
DUKE ELLINGTONI 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.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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People do not retire. They are retired by others.
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There is no art when one does something without intention.
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Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
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Yet, every time God’s children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.
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You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
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Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
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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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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline!
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Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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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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Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.
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The artist must say it without saying it.
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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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Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
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Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.
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There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
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It’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
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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.
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Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.
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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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The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
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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.
DUKE ELLINGTON