Duke Ellington Quotes About Music

Quotes about: Music

• I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Art, Opportunity

  "The Best of the Music Makers". Book by George Thomas Simon, 1979.

• A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

  Duke Ellington

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

• 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 is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Together, Band

• 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

• The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.

  Duke Ellington

  Inspiring, Music, Wise

• 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.

• 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

• 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

• It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

  Duke Ellington

  Inspirational, Mean Girls, Music

  1965 Of trumpeter Bubber Miley.'The Most Essential Instrument', in Jazz Journal, Dec.

• 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

• 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

• There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Art, Gone

• 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

• 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

• Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Self, Discipline

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

• 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

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