Caravan (1937 song)

Caravan is a jazz standard composed by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington. He was received by the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1936 by Barney Bigard first, 1937. The copyright for the text located at Irving Mills.

The title

The first version of the track was recorded in Hollywood on December 19, 1936 by Barney Bigard And His Jazzopators. Between 1934 and 1938 many titles of the repertoire of the Ellington orchestra emerged under the name of his musicians - even Cootie Williams and Rex Stewart took under his own name and the occupations were ultimately Small Band versions of the Ellington Orchestra; she later appeared as The Duke 's Men LP / CD. 1936 two takes were recorded, published the first of which ( Variety VA -515 -1).

The performing musicians were Cootie Williams ( trumpet), Juan Tizol (trombone), Barney Bigard (clarinet ), Harry Carney ( baritone sax ), Duke Ellington ( piano ), Billy Taylor ( bass) and Sonny Greer (drums). Ellington biographer Hans Ruland wrote about this recording: " Tizol is here with his actually unjazzigen phrasing the issue before. Cootie then takes over so gripping, whereupon Carney with a remarkably flexible baritone saxophone also can not splash out and Bigard, as so often, most of topic leads away so Tizol finally just brings his caravan to an end, as it began it. "

"Caravan" is considered one of the biggest hits that Ellington ever had; the track is a permanent part of the tape repertoire. Written by Juan Tizol, Ellington, however, drew up the middle and made ​​it through the arrangement until a " Ellington " title. The Ellington biographer James Lincoln Collier remarks to the uptake by the Ellington Orchestra 1937:

" Tizols melody is perfectly acceptable, but it is only the arrangement that makes the piece a little. In the first chorus Duke supports the theme with a brief, repeated by the saxophones counter statement and adds in some places a few growls of the trumpet added to enhance the eerie, exotic mood; He reveals his skills in order to deal with a number of votes at the same time. Thus, the melody is by Ellington'scher style in the band " passed around ", only played by Barney Bigard, Cootie Williams now of the plunger damper, then by a tenor saxophone. In any case, the solo part is supported by a discreet, unobtrusive vote against - the clarinet by a muted trumpet, the trumpet by the saxophones, etc. ( ... ) It is a classic Ellington, full of change, movement - but everything mixes so easily that the listener hardly notices the parts due to the overall effect. "

Interpretations

The jazz song with his " exotic " sound, reminiscent of the music of the Middle East, has been interpreted to be a successful jazz standard, and by countless musicians such as Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Thelonious Monk, Art Pepper, Oscar Peterson Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Wes Montgomery, Angelo Debarre ( with Ludovic Beier ), Rabih Abou -Khalil, Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. He appeared as film music in two Woody Allen films, Alice and Sweet and Lowdown. In addition, artists such as The Carpenters and the Mills Brothers took him on. More recently, the rapper Redman and Busta Rhymes sampelten him in their song "Da Goodness " (1998).