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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

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Duke Ellington
Age: 75 †
Born: 1899
Born: April 29
Died: 1974
Died: May 24
Autobiographer
Bandleader
Composer
Conductor
Film Score Composer
Jazz Arranger
Jazz Musician
Lyricist
Music Arranger
Musician
Pianist
Washington
District of Columbia
Edward Kennedy Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy Ellington
Edward K. Ellington
Rock
Pulse
Rocks
Blues
Courses
Root
Course
African
Common
Africa
Comes
Slave
Back
Jazz
Way
Roots
Chants

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Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.
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What does music mean to you? What would you do without music?
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A musical profit outweighs a financial loss.
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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.
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The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he.
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A goal is a dream with a finish line.
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Love is supreme and unconditional like is nice but limited.
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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!
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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.
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Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
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The Europeans who went to Africa came back with “modern' art. What is more African than a Picasso?
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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.
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I don't need time. What I need is a deadline!
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Problems are chances for us to do our best.
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