Duke Ellington Quotes About Jazz

Quotes about: Jazz

• Put it this way: Jazz is a good barometer of freedom... In its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Country, Expression

• 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.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Occupation, Jazz

• There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Two, Jazz

  Mark Tucker, Duke Ellington (1995). “The Duke Ellington Reader”, p.326, Oxford Paperbacks

• By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Daughter, Mother

  "At the Jazz Band Ball: Sixty Years on the Jazz Scene". Book by Nat Hentoff, 2010.

• Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don't want it.

  Duke Ellington

  Art, Want, Jazz

• Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Marriage, Work

  Music Is My Mistress act 8 "Pedestrian Minstrel" (1973)

• If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!

  Duke Ellington

  Inspirational, Music, Feel Good

• The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Important, Looks

• I don't need time. What I need is a deadline!

  Duke Ellington

  Inspirational, Needs, Jazz

• A goal is a dream with a finish line.

  Duke Ellington

  Inspirational, Music, Dream

• I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.

  Duke Ellington

  Funny, Music, Girl

• The common root, of course, comes out of Africa. That's the pulse.The African pulse. It's all the way back from . . . the old slave chants and up through the blues, the jazz, and up through rock. And it's all got the African pulse.

  Duke Ellington

  Rocks, Roots, Pulse

• Playing 'bop' is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Missing You, Playing Jazz

  1954 In Look, 10 Aug.

• There is no art without intention.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Art, Jazz

• Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.

  Duke Ellington

  Jazz, Barometer

  Mark Tucker, Duke Ellington (1995). “The Duke Ellington Reader”, p.295, Oxford Paperbacks

• Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.

  Duke Ellington

  Live For Today, Fans, Alive

  Duke Ellington (1973). “Music is my mistress”, Doubleday Books

• 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

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Lying, Tin Pan Alley

  Duke Ellington (1973). “Music is my mistress”, Doubleday Books

• Roaming through the jungle of "Ohs" and "Ahs", searching for a more agreeable noise, I live a life of primitivity with the mind of a child and an unquenchable thirst for sharps and flats.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Children, Mind

  "Music Is My Mistress". Book by Duke Ellington, 1973.

• Gray skies are just clouds passing over.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Failure, Adversity

  Duke Ellington (1973). “Music is my mistress”, Doubleday Books

• Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be too famous too young.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Fate, Want

  Mark Tucker, Duke Ellington (1995). “The Duke Ellington Reader”, p.398, Oxford Paperbacks

• 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. ... I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues. ... I don't need time, I need a deadline. ...There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind. ... Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one.

  Duke Ellington

  Play, Two, Mistress

• It's like an act of murder - you play with intent to commit something.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Play, Jazz

  New York Herald Tribune, July 09, 1961.

• What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Mean, Doe

• 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.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Jazz, Epitome

• 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.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Should Have, Done

  "The Duke Ellington Reader".

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