Music is my mistress, and she plays second fiddle to no one.

Ellington frames music as an all-consuming, primary relationship—“my mistress”—suggesting devotion that rivals (or supersedes) conventional attachments. The punchline, “she plays second fiddle to no one,” fuses romantic metaphor with orchestral idiom: in an ensemble, “second fiddle” is subordinate, but for Ellington music refuses any subordinate role. The line captures a musician’s sense of vocation as both pleasure and discipline, and it also reflects Ellington’s public persona: witty, urbane, and committed to artistic primacy. Read this way, the quote is less about infidelity than about hierarchy—music is the central allegiance organizing his life and identity.