Jazz standards are the cornerstones and building blocks of any jazz musician. Teaching key skills such as rhythm, chord structures, and improvisation. However, they also serve as a creative template. Jazz musicians do not simply learn the tune, and the corresponding triads for the chord sequence, and then call it a day.
Jazz musicians do what they do best, they improvise, they experiment.
I remember trying to play Autumn Leaves in 3/4, Alice in Wonderland in 4/4, and My Funny Valentine in C major. Some of these ideas worked, some of them definitely didn’t. It was these mistakes, the process of trial-and-error by ear, that helped me develop my jazz playing.
So as you're probably aware by now, I think jazz standards are great. The invitation for creativity, scope for interpretation, and common repertoire for any impromptu jamming make jazz standards brilliant.
However, I suppose I’m preaching to the choir given you’re reading the Jazz Section of TLSR, so I’ll get straight to it.
Too often, I’ve flipped to a page in my Real Book and not appreciated the history of the tune. I’ll play it, listen to multiple recordings, and try and learn it, but I will very rarely take a step back and appreciate the backstory. So, I’ve taken it upon myself to try and shed some light on the history, the stories, and tales of the jazz standards we all love.
In this article, I’ll tackle a classic: Take the “A” Train.
Take the “A” train.
A legendary jazz standard, composed by Billy Strayhorn in 1939, and the signature sound of the Duke Ellington orchestra.
Billy Strayhorn, an emerging composer and songwriter, attended an Ellington performance in Pittsburgh in 1938. There, he engaged Ellington in a conversation about his ideas on arrangements and compositions for the pieces they had just played. Strayhorn's creativity and understanding of style quickly impressed Ellington, earning him an invitation to New York for a follow-up meeting.
Before Strayhorn's trip to New York, Ellington sent him a list of instructions on how to get to his house by subway, starting with Take the ‘A’ Train, the then-new A subway service that ran through New York.
En route to Sugar Hill (Ellington’s house), Strayhorn composed the jazz standard. The letter, the speed of the train, and even the rumbling of the express tracks served as inspiration for the standard. Have a listen, can you hear it?
Take the “A” Train was born.
Strayhorn was a pioneer of the modern big band sound, his unique melodic styles, chord progressions, lyrical gift, and classical influence brought about a new sound in jazz. For example, “Strayhorn’s melodies are often angular in their shape, and his phrases are typically long and legato in feeling, with many intervallic leaps. His melody notes often sit on extended chord tones” (Colburn).
These characteristics of Strayhorn’s music, and by extension his big band sound, can be easily seen in Take the “A” Train. The head is characterised by jumps between the G and E (5th and 3rd) and a sustained note on the flat fifth (in bars 3-4). Nevertheless, the track also features hallmark Ellington sounds such as the use of mutes by trombones/trumpets and a powerful sax section.
The fusion of the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s sound with Strayhorn’s progressive touch led to Take the “A” Train quickly becoming a hit recording and subsequently the orchestra’s signature tune.
“Many music historians attribute Ellington’s rebounding success during the 1940s to the help of Strayhorn” (PBS)
However, the jump from paper to radio was not flawless, as the standard was nearly lost to a waste bin. “In Stuart Nicholson’s Reminiscing in Tempo-A Portrait of Duke Ellington, Mercer Ellington describes how he retrieved Take the “A” Train from the garbage. Strayhorn had thrown it there claiming it was an old thing and too much like Fletcher Henderson” (JazzStandards.com), a rival to Ellington.
After being rescued, Take the “A” Train went live on February 15, 1941, via the RCA-Victor recording studios in Hollywood. Since then, Take the “A” Train has been widely recognised and celebrated as one of the greatest jazz standards, being played by numerous renowned jazz musicians across multiple venues.
In 1999, National Public Radio included the song in the NPR 100, a list of the 100 most important American musical works in the 20th century.
The famous AABA structure, its catchy and lyrical tune, exciting chord changes (including a modulation from C major to E-flat in Duke Ellington’s later version), and brilliant big band sound are just some of many reasons why Take the “A” Train is truly remarkable.
Credit:
Colburn School: https://www.colburnschool.edu/community-initiatives/billy-strayhorn/strayhorns-style/
JazzStandards.com: https://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-0/taketheatrain.htm#:~:text=Musical%20analysis%20of%20“Take%20the%20%22A%22%20Train”&text=Overall%20this%20is%20a%20challenging,D7(b5)%20in%20mm
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