“C Jam Blues” – Billy Strayhorn Trio (1950)

A popular jazz standard with a melodic head that anyone who can locate a C and a G on a piano can play – and anyone who knows the 12-bar blues song form can play along with.

While the tune was originally recorded by Barney Bigard with a small combo Ellington unit in 1941, it eventually became one of the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s most recorded and most played numbers. At that original session Billy Strayhorn helped arrange the number – and then added additional elements for Ellington’s full-orchestra version recorded at the end of that year.

Over the years, it ranked among the twenty most-played tunes by the Ellington orchestra.

Here we have Billy Strayhorn and Duke both at the piano, nearly ten years after the original recording was made. At times it is tricky to figure out who is playing what – a testament to their close musical connection.

Recorded in New York City on October 3, 1950.
Released as Mercer M-1954

Credits:
Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington – piano
Wendell Marshall – bass