Duke Ellington Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

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

Duke Ellington
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.

Duke Ellington
It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).

Duke Ellington
Playing "Bop" is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

Duke Ellington
How can anyone expect to be understood unless he presents his thoughts with complete honesty? This situation is unfair because it asks too much of the world. In effect, we say, "I don't dare show you what I am because I don't trust you for a minute but please love me anyway because I so need you to. And, of course, if you don't love me anyway, you're a dirty dog, just as I suspected, so I was right in the first place." Yet, every time God's children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty-trying to communicate themselves, understood or not, miracles have happened.

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

Duke Ellington
Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one.

Duke Ellington
Poor little Sweet Pea, Billy Strayhorn, William Thomas Strayhorn, the biggest human being who ever lived, a man with the greatest courage, the most majestic artistic stature, a highly skilled musician whose impeccable taste commanded the respect of all musicians and the admiration of all listeners.

Duke Ellington
Jazz is a good barometer of freedom. In its beginnings, the United States 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
Roaming through the jungle of "oohs" 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
It's like an act of murder; you play with intent to commit something.

Duke Ellington
By and large…jazz was like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.

Duke Ellington
Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.

Duke Ellington
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.

Duke Ellington