Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
DUKE ELLINGTONBe a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.
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Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.
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Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
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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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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
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What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
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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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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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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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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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Of the One O’Clock Lab Band after hearing their performance, and sitting in with them at the White House: “I wish it were mine”.
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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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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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You have to stop listening in categories. The music is either good or it’s bad.
DUKE ELLINGTON