I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
Duke EllingtonRead
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.
Interpretation
Dancing enhances the connection to music, especially for those who create it.
This quote by Duke Ellington emphasizes the intrinsic relationship between music and dance. He suggests that dancing is essential for musicians as it helps them fully grasp the rhythm and emotion of their own creations. Without the experience of dancing, musicians may struggle to communicate the essence of their music, as dance embodies the physical interpretation of a musical beat.
In practice
During a music festival, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of dancing in understanding the music.
I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.
There is no art without intention.
There is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!
Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
Playing 'bop' is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
I don't really look at the charts at all. If anything, I try to out-do what I've done before. I try to make music that I like and I trust my own judgement with what will work with a wider audience. If you compare yourself to the charts, you lose perspective on what you're doing and why you're doing it.
What we've had to do is learn to control success, put it in perspective, and not lose the essence of what we're doing - the music.
Pop music often tells you everything is OK, while rock music tells you that it's not OK, but you can change it.
Music fills the infinite between two souls. This has been muffled by the mist of our daily habits.
I look around me and I don’t see any rock’n’roll at the moment. Instead it’s all choreography and stylists and wigs and stuff. It’s like they’re afraid to let the music breathe. No one has their own identity like the Ronettes did back in the day. We had the skirts with the slits up the side, sort of tough, sort of Spanish Harlem cool, but sweet too. We didn’t have no dancers, we didn’t have no goddamn wigs.
Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin. Now, they are so subtle, they can milk you with two notes. They can make you feel like they told you the whole universe. But I don't know that yet. All I got now is strength. Maybe if I keep singing, maybe I'll get it.
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