Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.
DUKE ELLINGTONI’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.
More Duke Ellington Quotes
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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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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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Simplicity is a most complex form.
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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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Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.
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Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
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I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline!
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By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.
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Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.
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A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
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I don’t need time, I need a deadline.
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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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Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn’t do nothing.
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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.
DUKE ELLINGTON