From Wikipedia
Hurricane Sandy devastated large portions of the eastern coastline of the United States including the train line connecting a long peninsula called "the Rockaways" with downtown New York City. This train line was part of the subway known as "The A Train" that provided the title for the Ellington standard written by Billy Strayhorn.
It took 7 months of working seven days a week and 75 million dollars in repairs to restore the train service which opened today. The picture below shows one of the original cars that was brought back to commemorate the grand opening. It could have been the one Billy took to get to Duke's house on that day in 1939.
"A Train" Another video introducing Billy Strayhorn.
The title refers to the relatively new A subway service that runs through New York City, going at that time from eastern Brooklyn (opened in 1936) up into Harlem and northern Manhattan, using an express track section (opened in 1932) in Manhattan.
"Take the 'A' Train"was composed in 1939, after Ellington offered Strayhorn a job in his organization and gave him money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York City. Ellington wrote directions for Strayhorn to get to his house by subway, directions that began, "Take the A Train". Strayhorn was a great fan of Fletcher Henderson's arrangements. "One day, I was thinking about his style, the way he wrote for trumpets, trombones and saxophones, and I thought I would try something like that," Strayhorn recalled in Stanley Dance's The World Of Duke Ellington.
Hurricane Sandy devastated large portions of the eastern coastline of the United States including the train line connecting a long peninsula called "the Rockaways" with downtown New York City. This train line was part of the subway known as "The A Train" that provided the title for the Ellington standard written by Billy Strayhorn.
It took 7 months of working seven days a week and 75 million dollars in repairs to restore the train service which opened today. The picture below shows one of the original cars that was brought back to commemorate the grand opening. It could have been the one Billy took to get to Duke's house on that day in 1939.
"A Train" Another video introducing Billy Strayhorn.
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