133 Quotes by Duke Ellington

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!

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

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.

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.

A problem is your chance to do your best.

in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically the principles of democracy through the medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and culture.

I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline!

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

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