sara sings jazz

“Take the ‘A’ Train” was composed in 1939, after Duke Ellington offered Billy 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.  (Wikipedia)                  

Apparently, Strayhorn wrote the words as well but when 20-year-old Joya Sherrill wrote alternative words to a version she heard on the radio, played by Duke’s orchestra, her father set a meeting up with Ellington & “owing to Joya’s remarkable poise and singing ability and her unique take on the song, Ellington hired her as a vocalist and adopted her lyrics.”

Here are the lyrics:

You must take the A Train

To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem

If you miss the A Train

You’ll find you’ve missed the quickest way to Harlem

Hurry, get on, now, it’s coming, listen to those rails a-thrumming                                                              

All board, get on the A Train

Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem

Now, the lyrics I sing on the first & second chorus of the Jonny Hepbir Quartet video, were written by the wonderful vocalist Eddie Jefferson (August 3, 1918 – May 9, 1979). He is crowned the innovator of vocalese. Vocalese is when lyrics are written to a solo & becomes a song in itself. Eddie Jefferson material consisted pretty much solely of vocaleses that he had written.

Here are some of his records:

Get the album from Amazon

Also available on Amazon & featuring the tune “Take The A Train”

Okay! So let’s hear Eddie singing it: 

And here are the words that Eddie Jefferson sings, the first 2 choruses of which I sing too:

1st chorus:                                                                                                                 

A] Come on, let’s catch that A-train                                                                     If you ever, want to get to Harlem

A] Clickety, clackety, clickety, clack ooh ooh listen for the A-train                    You’ll find, it’s the quickest way to get to Harlem

B] Listen, listen you can hear it coming down the track, Jack!                   Come on, let’s get on board 

A] Ding, dong, ding, dong, dining listen for the A-train                                     Go park the car, don’t park it far, we’ll be right back

2nd chorus:

A] I dream of Jeanie with the light-brown hair, oh how I wish she was there. So I could share the bliss, of just one little kiss, while I was standing in the rain, while I was waiting for the train

A] I knew that I should hurry cause I figured I should worry if I would ever be late. I couldn’t afford to wait so I went a-looking for the A-train

B] As I started walking down the long, long track - the people started talking and I talked right back                                                                            Suddenly everything became hazy, I suddenly thought that I was going crazy

A] Till I saw a fellow on the track, with a shovel on his back and I knew I couldn’t be wrong                                                                                    Heeeey, now I’m singing this song, I wish you’d swing along

3rd chorus:                                                                                                     

A]4 bar instrumental riff                                                                           Can’t wait to get my mellow arms around her shoulder, cause night times in New York are getting colder                                                            

A] 4 bar instrumental riff                                                                                   Now, crazy folks that dig my jokes they know that I’m not jivin’ - now is the time to be heading uptown 

B] But you better not believe that this is just a silly (idyllic), little romance, just to start a love affair                                                                It’s just the A-train, simply passing me by, guess I better start walking, stop these people’s talking

A] 4 bar instrumental riff                                                                             Don’t stop until I get to Central Park, I gotta be in Harlem before the skies get dark

CODA] I wanna be with Jeanie where I can cause a spark, with the Jeanie with the light-brown hair. A-train! Come along and carry me there.

I haven’t recorded the 3rd chorus & instead of the girl’s name Jeanie, I sing Jessie, which is my boyfriend’s middle name.

I wish you good luck learning this tune & hopefully many more of Eddie Jefferson’s material. If you want to know more about what I get up to, go to my website www.sarasingsjazz.com, follow me here & on Twitter.

This is my first blog. It's a place where I can share my experiences as a professional jazz singer & hopefully give some helpful tips to potential clients, fellow singers & musicians. And obviously share a bit of behind-the-scenes gossip.

I can share my latest gig with you, which was in Doha, Qatar. That's far to go for a gig, isn't it? Well, in fact it was quite a few more gigs than that. 17 gigs + two sessions in a recording studio in 19 days. Wow!

We got booked by Doha Jazz run by Chris Coull, a great trumpet player. He put us up in a villa & made sure we had everything we needed. 

The gigs we did included hotels, ATP (Qatar Open Tennis Tournament) & a few private events. Everywhere we went people were so kind & hospitable, which made every gig extra special.

I love working abroad. It combines my two favourite pastimes; music & travelling. I get exposed to different cultures & food (also a pastime favourite) & meet so many interesting people.

So! How was that for a first blog attempt? 

Like I said at the beginning of this, I'd like to give helpful advice, insights & inspiration to fellow musicians, potential clients & everyone else, so if you have any questions or suggestions on subjects, please let me know.

Cheers x