Best Duke Ellington Quotes & Sayings

It doesn't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing — Duke Ellington

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

A problem is a chance for you to do your best. — Duke Ellington

Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare. — Duke Ellington

I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King's son. — Duke Ellington

I don't need time, I need a deadline. — Duke Ellington

A goal is a dream with a finish line. — Duke Ellington

San Francisco is one of the great cultural plateaus of the world - one of the really urbane communities in the United States - one of the truly cosmopolitan places and for many, many years, it always has had a warm welcome for human beings from all over the world — Duke Ellington

I remember the night when I was playing at Birdland, and Duke Ellington walked in wearing that cap of his and with all his elegance. The Duke then came backstage, and I was there with my band. That's the one thing I miss. — Maynard Ferguson

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

It really was truth or consequences, and Billy went with truth. It was just incredible." Forsaking public prominence, Strayhorn found personal freedom in service to the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Now there might not be a Billy Strayhorn Orchestra. But there was a Billy Strayhorn. — David Hajdu

My teachers are Duke Ellington and nature. — Toru Takemitsu

My inspiration comes from the message Duke Ellington gave - you are unique, be yourself, put out that thing that is you, then use your work ethic and produce great music. — Kenny Burrell

What does music mean to you? What would you do without music? — Duke Ellington

Problems are chances for us to do our best. — Duke Ellington

Count Basie was college, but Duke Ellington was graduate school. — Clark Terry

My biggest kick in music -playing or writing- is when I have a problem. Without a problem to solve, how much interest do you take in anything? — Duke Ellington

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

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind. — Duke Ellington

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

I like to think Duke Ellington would probably embrace a fragrance as well. — Bryan Ferry

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

Duke Ellington's career traces the entire history of jazz. The repertoire associated with him contains the most important elements in the music and provides concrete examples of some of the best ways to present the music in the widest variety of settings-radio, TV, recordings, movies, concert halls, festivals, solo, small ensemble, big band, symphony orchestra, opera, Broadway shows ... You name it, he did it! — Billy Taylor

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

There are two kinds of worries - those you can do something about and those you can't. Don't spend any time on the latter. — Duke Ellington

I do very few standards. Hardly any. Other people's tunes that I do are usually obscure tunes, for the most part, although I do a couple of Duke Ellington tunes that are well known. — Mose Allison

I especially like Duke Ellington jazz, which is a little more ... I lived in New York for a while. I lived in Harlem for a bit, and I just fell in love with the idea of that era of New York, that jazz era, especially jazz in Harlem. — Charlie Day

As for my band, well, my mentors were Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, and no one had a band more smartly dressed than Duke. — B.B. King

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

If it sounds good, it IS good. — Duke Ellington

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 Ellington

Jazz is a good barometer of freedom. — Duke Ellington

Quincy Jones' autobiography 'Q' is very good. Because he's a master at music, he's one of our greatest composers, and its good for him to have a book and tell the good ole days when he was with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan and Ray Charles. — Ice Cube

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! — Duke Ellington

Simplicity is a most complex form — Duke Ellington

I fell in love with jazz when I was 12 years old from listening to Duke Ellington and hearing a lot of jazz in New York on the radio. — Steve Lacy