Talk:Duke Ellington

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My name is Raïssa and I have great admoration and respect for the jazz great Duke Ellington. I just don't see anyone else here that is.

Suite of 6 pieces for the Queen

I have recently crashed a master class at the university of toronto where rare footage of the jazz greats were shown. The material was an incredible collection of great performances of masters of past and present, and among it, there was a video clip of Duke Ellington playing a piece from something he recorded for the Queen... in the video he only mentioned that he spoke to the queen about how marvellous a certain structure of hers was and that perhaps music could be made in it (I didn't take notes on the name of the place, but I assume it was a palace or something). Her majesty the Queen granted his musing and I guess he played and recorded in privacy at this place. The piece he played was apparently one of the six he recorded. The recording remains in the Queen's possession... I don't know how often she listens to it, but I was wondering if anyone knew anymore about this and if this recording has been released for the public.

thank you.

Unsourced

If you can provide a precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to Duke Ellington.

• There are two kinds of music, the good kind and the other kind. I like both.
• A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
• Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it.
• Critics have their purposes, and they're supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what they did.
• Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
• I am a bandleader and I am a composer. I am not a teacher.
• I don’t believe in categories of any kind, and when you speak of problems between blacks and whites in the U.S.A. you are referring to categories again.
• I don’t pursue anything. The only thing I always answer is my own impulse.
• I like any and all of my associations with music— writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky.
• I live with music.
• I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
  • Quoted (but not sourced) in George Thomas Simon's The Best of the Music Makers (1979); Ellington's response to being asked how he felt about being excluded from some of the top jazz venues because of his race. --Hughh (talk) 00:06, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
• I’m a telephone freak, the greatest invention since peanut brittle.
• I’m the world’s worst disciplinarian. There’s too much responsibility in being a leader! You have to have the dignity and authority of a leader, and that’s all so heavy!
• Love is indescribable and unconditional. I could tell you a thousand things that it is not, but not one that it is. Either you have it or you haven’t; there’s no proof of it.
• Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.
• My attitude is never to be satisfied, never enough, never.
• 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?
• Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
  • On being asked to compose sacred music, recalled on his death.
• Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.
• The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
• There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.
• There is no art when one does something without intention.
• You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it.
• Jazz is music-Swing is business.
• A man is a god in ruins.
• A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
• A problem is your chance to do your best.
• Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it.
• By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.
• Critics have their purposes, and they're supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what they did.
• Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be too famous too young.
• Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
• I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
• It's like an act of murder; you play with intent to commit something.
• Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.
• My attitude is never to be satisfied, never enough, never.
• Now I can say loudly and openly what I have been saying to myself on my knees.
• On becoming more acquainted with the word of the Bible, I began to understand so much more of what I had been taught, and of what I had learned about life and about the people in mine.
• People do not retire. They are retired by others.
• Playing "bop" is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
• The wise musicians are those who play what they can master.
• 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.
• There is hardly any money interest in art, and music will be there when money is gone.
• You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it.
• I don’t need time, I need a deadline.