During Christmas of my twelfth year I received my first Duke Ellington Orchestra record, and I listened to it incessantly during my middle school years. I had all the melodies memorized and used to articulate the big band sound singing and humming along while studying for school or falling asleep at night. It was my first real introduction to Jazz, and it never left me. In fact, when I started improvising in college I used to find extreme comfort from the Duke Ellington tunes because I knew every note and melody, and I knew how to change it and when chord changes were happening.
It is no surprise, then, that I am releasing my first cover tune that was written by Billy Strayhorn of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The classic “Take the A Train” has always been a melody that I used to practice improvisation and absorbed for fun. Little did I know it was actually a tune much more than that to me. I have created a unique arrangement of improvisation and subtle melody choices of this famous tune that I hope you enjoy. The arrangement is a unique version using three saxophone voices (two alto and one tenor) that demonstrate a unique improvisation style with an anti-rhythm feel. It culminates many years of jamming to this wonderful tune, and it is one of the few tunes that I would even choose to cover.
You can currently purchase a digital mp3 download for your music player by visiting CD Baby.
Slight Winds 