BLACK WEEK, MARRON AND BEIGE

Duke Ellington and his Orchestra - Take The A Train (1962) [official video]

Let's get it out of the way halfway through the week and play our trump card. This is the programmatic manifesto of the entire Ellingtonian production. Written solely by Billy Strayhorn, an extraordinary "orchestrator" of sounds (that lean, shy gentleman the Duke introduces at the beginning of the clip), this piece is a constant tug-of-war between the brass sections, trumpets, trombones, and saxophones, a true paradigm for all the swing to come, and for a few other things as well... Notice the subtle and exquisite work of the rhythm section as well as the perfect cohesion and discipline of the brass, which reaches its peak at 2'07", in the spontaneous imitation of traffic sounds, a true sonic revolution at the time.