BILLY STRAYHORN HONORED BY NYC MTA AND JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER
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Photo Credit: Marc Hermann/NYC Transit. This weekend, tributes to famed late jazz composer Billy Strayhorn climaxed as the artist’s 100th birthday passed on the 29th. Of the tributes performed globally, one song was undoubtedly cued again and again: “Take The ‘A’ Train”.
With its boisterous horn parts and playful topline melody, “Take The ‘A’ Train” is among Strayhorn’s most recognizable works. Since the song’s release with long-time creative partner Duke Ellington in the 1940s, “’A’ Train” has become a beloved jazz standard whose words and rhythm immortalize the heyday of Harlem’s jazz scene, complete with an insider’s tip on how to get there: New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority A train line.
This weekend, the MTA pulled out all the stops in acknowledging the song’s namesake, arranging for performers from its MTA MUSIC program to serenade unsuspecting patrons of the A train beginning at Harlem’s 145th Street station. Artists including the Donald Malloy Quartet from the MTA MUSIC roster and the Evan Sherman Entourage at the invitation of Jazz at Lincoln Center performed, with the entire celebration culminating in back-to-back tribute performances at Dizzy’s Club in the Time Warner Center, where Strayhorn estate family members Alyce Claerbaut (President, Billy Strayhorn Songs, Inc.), Leslie Demus (President, the Billy Strayhorn Foundation), and others were in attendance.
This year’s MTA Strayhorn centennial celebration mirrors an in-train tribute performed by famed trumpeter and JALC Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis in 1999. Marsalis was happy to see the organization’s musicians revisit the unconventional venue for the tribute, saying, “ In 1999, we played ‘Take The A Train’ on the train with musicians from MTA’s Music Under New York program. It’s time to swing the A train once again with the MTA. We celebrate the centennial of Mr. Strayhorn by saluting one of the most meaningful compositions in the jazz canon, as we also salute our public transit system.”
MTA Director of Arts & Design Sandra Bloodworth added, “We are absolutely thrilled to celebrate Billy Strayhorn’s music in the subway since his composition, ‘Take the A train,’ serves as a soundtrack of sorts for millions of strap hangers and Strayhorn’s soulful jazz is rooted in the New York experience.”