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.
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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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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New music? Hell, there’s been no new music since Stravinsky.
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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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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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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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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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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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Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.
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A Satin Doll is a woman who is as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside.
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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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It’s like an act of murder – you play with intent to commit something.
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You’ve got to find a way of saying it without saying it.
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Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.
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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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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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There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.
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It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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The artist must say it without saying it.
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I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline!
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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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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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There are 2 rules in life: Number 1- Never quit. Number2- Never forget rule number 1.
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I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
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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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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
DUKE ELLINGTON