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.

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.

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

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

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

To keep a band together you simply need a gimmick. The gimmick I use is to pay them money.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write to ultimately be at peace with himself.

Jazz music is a style, not compositions; any kind of music may be played in Jazz if one has the knowledge.

If a song’s about something I’ve experienced or that could’ve happened to me it’s good. But if it’s alien to me, I couldn’t lend anything to it. Because that’s what soul is all about.

Les is an old friend of mine. He gave me this special white Les Paul – he wound the pickups himself – for my birthday, first time I met him. I play everything from heavy metal to blues to jazz on it. He just hit it right on the head when he designed the Les Paul. I like it better than most girlfriends I’ve had. The godfather of rock ‘n’ roll, I call him. Without him, none of us would have a job.

There’s always room for improvisation or changes of expression.

The audience should feel they are hearing the future, arriving just on time.

I started to like blues, I guess, when I was about 6 or 7 years old. There was something about it, because nobody else played that kind of music.

By its very nature, no one person can ever be the center of Jazz.

A drummer has to be kind-hearted.

Blues is to Jazz what yeast is to bread; without it, it’s flat.

The hidden things, the subconscious that lies in the body and lets you know: You feel this, you play this.

Your sound is you and what you really feel inside.

Jazz is a mental attitude rather than a style. It uses a certain process of the mind expressed spontaneously through some musical instrument. I’m concerned with retaining that process.

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.

Do not fear mistakes, there are none.