Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.
DUKE ELLINGTONI 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.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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People do not retire. They are retired by others.
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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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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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Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
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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.
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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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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
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There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit. Number2- Never forget rule number 1.
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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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It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line
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Be a number one yourself. And not a number two somebody else.
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Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.
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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.
DUKE ELLINGTON