In celebration of Pride month 🏳️🌈 all of my posts this month will feature the music of LGBTQ+ artists of the 78 rpm era!
Of all the tunes Billy Strayhorn wrote for Duke Ellington’s Orchestra, “Take the A Train” – while a more straightforward swing number that was atypical of Strayhorn’s usual style – stands out as a shining example as his most successful composition. The proto-bop intro riff and Ray Nance’s trumpet solo at 0:51 are real highlights.
“Take the A Train” was adopted by Ellington as the signature tune of his orchestra, who literally played it “virtually every day for decades.” Scholars have counted over 1100 recorded performances by the Ellington band alone. “To the general audience the piece became virtually synonymous with Duke Ellington.”
It is worth discussing the importance of Duke as an true ally to Strayhorn. I’ll quote from a long passage in Lush Life to illustrate this:
“Famously egalitarian, Ellington accepted Strayhorn’s homosexuality much as he had long embraced gifted musicians regardless of their backgrounds or idiosyncrasies. ‘Pop never cared one bit that Strayhorn was gay,’ said Mercer Ellington. ‘He was never prejudiced against anybody he thought was really worthy… Pop knew the story. He backed up Strayhorn all the way.’”
“Another gay musician who was a close friend of Strayhorn’s evoked the virtue of Ellington’s patronage empathetically. ‘For those of us who were both black and homosexual in that time, acceptance was of paramount importance, absolutely paramount importance. Duke Ellington afforded Billy Strayhorn that acceptance. That was something that cannot be undervalued or under-appreciated. To Billy, that was gold.’”
“The most amazing thing of all about Billy Strayhorn to me was that he had the strength to make an extraordinary decision – that is, the decision not to hide the fact that he was homosexual. And he did this in the 1940s, when nobody but nobody did that… He wasn’t afraid. We were. And you know what the difference between us was? Duke Ellington.”’
[Lush Life, p. 79]
In Duke Ellington’s on words, Strayhorn was “the biggest human being who ever lived, a man with the greatest courage, the most majestic artistic stature, a highly skilled musician whose impeccable taste commanded the respect of all musicians and the admiration of all listeners… He was a beautiful human being, adored by a wide range of friends, rich, poor, famous, and unknown.”
Happy Pride! 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️
Recorded in Hollywood, California on February 15, 1941.
Released as Victor 27380.
Credits:
Duke Ellington – piano, director
Billy Strayhorn – arranger
Wardell Jones, Ray Nance – trumpet
Rex Stewart – cornet
Joe Nanton, Lawrence Brown – trombone
Juan Tizol – valve trombone
Barney Bigard – clarinet
Johnny Hodges – clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax
Harry Carney – alto sax, bass sax
Ben Webster – tenor sax
Fred Guy – guitar
Jimmy Blanton – string bass
Sonny Greer – drums
Sources:
Lush Life
Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn, Walter van de Leur, Oxford University Press, 2002
Jazz and Ragtime Records (1897-1942), Brian Rust, 6th Ed.
Homophobia in Jazz – JazzTimes – https://www.jazztimes.com/features/profiles/homophobia-in-jazz/
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