Take the ‘A’ Train (Clifford Brown’s version)

Harold Land (tenor sax), Clifford Brown (trumpet), Richie Powell (piano), George Morrow (bass) and Max Roach (drums). From the album Study in Brown (1955).

This is a standard jazz theme composed by Billy Strayhorn in 1939 and first recorded in 1941. The title refers to the then recently inaugurated underground railway ‘A’ that runs through New York City. Ellington offered Strayhorn a job and gave him money and directions to travel from Pittsburg to his house by subway.

New York subway

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The lyrics were initially composed and recorded by the Delta Rhythm Boys, but the one that Ellington used was written by Joya Sherrill, who Ellington hired as a singer due to her great vocal skills.

Joya Sherrill

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At the beginning of the theme, a cymbal is heard with the double bass and then the piano imitating the start of a train. You can hear its whistle. The group runs the theme at fast tempo. Land starts his solo at full speed playing single phrases with silences in between. Then Brown makes a solo with a similar structure by adding high notes from time to time. Powell’s solo is somewhat different, with more influence from the bebop style, and then the group exchanges four-bar solos with the drums. At the end they reexpose the theme and the train whistle is heard again.

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© EmArcy Records