Duke Ellington

Critics get a little carried away with what someone should have done, rather than what he did.

There is no art without intention.

It’s all music.

A goal is a dream with a finish line.

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

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

[On Louis Armstrong] You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him, not even modern shit. I can’t even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang.

Playing is my way of thinking, talking, communicating.

You have to sound sad first, then maybe later you can sound good.

You gotta love livin’, baby, ’cause dyin’ is a pain in the ass.

Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

Hell, nobody knows where jazz is going to go. There may be a kid right now in Chitlin Switch, Georgia, who is going to come along and upset everybody.

When you sing, always tell the truth.

The more you play, the more you hear and the more you hear, the more you want to play.

You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.

Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.

Your own music comes out of your head and emotions, but it’s not etched in your system.

Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific.

You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.

I feel like….Music is the – it’s the answer. It’s the reason.

You can’t seperate modern jazz from rock or from rhythm and blues – you can’t seperate it. Because that’s where it all started, and that’s where it all come from – that’s where I learned to keep rhythm – in church.