Take The "a" Train by Duke Ellington Jazz Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1129472

Peter Stöve ‘What If Benny Goodman…’ series, Vol. 2! (A take-off on events that could have happened with the Benny Goodman Orchestra’s book of arrangements if things in jazz history had taken another turn). In 1940, Duke Ellington asked his son Mercer and Billy Strayhorn to write a whole new band book because of the ban on broadcasting ASCAP-material. One of the songs that Strayhorn arranged was his 1939 composition ‘Take The ‘A’-Train'. But he abandoned the project; Mercer Ellington recalled that he found the piece in a garbage can after Strayhorn discarded it ‘because it sounded too much like a Fletcher Henderson arrangement’. Nevertheless, it found it’s way to the Ellington band book, and it was recorded in early 1941. It became the signature tune of the band and so became a jazz standard. But what if Mercer had indeed handed the song (or the arrangement) over to Henderson, and Henderson would have made it playable for the Benny Goodman Band? After all, Henderson became staff arranger with Goodman in 1939. Strayhorn’s ‘Take The ‘A’-Train’ is presented here as a piece that could have been a cornerstone of the Goodman band library. Based on the ‘urtext’-arrangement, it’s form is the same as the Ellington version. The instrumentation is however different: in the first chorus, the trumpet’s and trombone’s responses to the melody are not separate, but are combined in an ‘all brass’-voicing. Of course, the first solo is for the clarinet, but after the modulation, trumpet 3 takes over solo duties. In the final eight bars of this solo, the original three-part trombone background is revoiced for the two trombones together with the two tenor saxes. In the final part of the arrangement the clarinet ‘rides over the ensemble’, while ‘winding down the proceedings’. Scored for the line-up of the Benny Goodman Orchestra of 1935: solo clt/2 as/2 ts/3 tpt/2 trb/rhy. Tpt 1 to Eb3. Perfectly playable for bands who can play the original Ellington version; the only exception is the presence of a solo clt part. The clarinet soloist must be a first-class ‘BG-wannabe’: fluent soloist, comfortable in the upper register. If your band has such a player: have fun!