Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
DUKE ELLINGTONSimplicity is a most complex form.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.
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The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
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If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original.
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Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.
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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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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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I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King’s son.
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Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.
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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
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The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.
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Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.
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Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
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Everybody in Canada seemed to listen to what they enjoyed, and nobody could tell them what to like, or what was the popular, or what was the In thing. Even today, it is very hard to brainwash a Canadian.
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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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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.
DUKE ELLINGTON