Take the "A" Train

Joe Venuti

Take the ‘A’ Train, one of the classics of jazz repertoire, was composed by the great African-American pianist, writer, and arranger, Billy Strayhorn. One evening in 1938, Duke Ellington invited Strayhorn to a party at his home in Sugar Hill, Harlem, instructing him to “take the A train” to get there. The phrase stuck with Strayhorn, and he wrote a tune to go with it not long afterward. In 1941, Duke himself recorded the song – which became a hit – and started performing it in all his live concerts. Nearly 80 years later, the A train is still the best way to get to Harlem!

The memorable trumpet solo from Duke’s first recording of Take the ‘A’ Train was performed by bandmate Ray Nance, a respected multi-instrumentalist and arranger who also happened to play the violin. Some years after the recording was released, Nance arranged a slow, somber duet version of the tune for violin and piano, which he performed with pianist Billy Taylor at the memorial services for both Strayhorn (1967) and Duke (1974).

Joe Venuti and Stephane Grappelli

One of my favorite violin interpretations of Take the ‘A’ Train is by Joe Venuti, arguably the first great jazz violinist in history. Venuti was born to Italian parents while on an immigrant ship in transit to the United States in 1903. As a child in Philadelphia, he learned theory and solfeggio from his grandfather and received formal classical training on violin as a member of the James Campbell School Orchestra. At a young age, he took an interest in jazz, blues, and improvisation, which he often played with a friend and fellow violinist in the orchestra.

While still in school, Venuti met the first significant musical partner of his career, jazz guitarist Eddie Lang. The pair started recording together frequently in the 1920s. Venuti became known for his fast, “hot” swing playing, and he was a major inspiration for many of the next generation’s most prominent jazz and swing violinists, including Bob Wills (who went on to form one of the most influential Western Swing bands in history, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys) and Stephane Grappelli. Grappelli and his friend, guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt, heard Venuti-Lang recordings like Dinah and Tea for Two on the jukeboxes in Paris, which inspired them to start a similar duo in the 1930s.

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn

Venuti went on to perform with Red Nichols and Jean Goldkette as well as on a number of Broadway shows, and his career took a major step forward in 1929 when he joined the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, in which his jazz playing was featured. As part of this ensemble, he appeared on many noteworthy records by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, The Boswell Sisters, Bing Crosby, and others. Eventually, he became a regular performer on the Bing Crosby Show.

From a young age, Venuti developed a reputation as a practical joker. Once, he poured flour into the bell of a tuba, and after the tubist played his first note, flour erupted from the bell and wreathed the entire band in a white cloud. On another occasion, he somehow convinced the great jazz cornetist Bix Biederbecke to climb into a tub full of Jell-O. For one particular recording session, he hired several different bassists, all of whom arrived at the studio around the same time only to find the front door locked. They remained out in the sidewalk in the rain, confused as to why so many other bassists were present. (This joke backfired, since Venuti was required to pay each of them a union scale fee for the “session.”)

Practical jokes aside, Venuti remains one of the greatest jazz violinists in history. Some of his classic riffs appear starting at Letter B in this version of Take the ‘A’ Train.

Madame Neruda

This Canadian hornpipe Madame Neruda features ricochet-staccato arpeggio bowing. The bowing occurs in measures 2 and 4 and the entire length of Letter B. This technique requires the “throwing” of the bow on the strings of the violin, bouncing it once on each of the three strings, making up each arpeggio group of notes, both down-bow and up-bow directions. The momentum from the throw of the bow, the pulling and guiding of the bow once it's thrown (first down and then up), should result in the notes sounding equal in volume and note value.

This kind of technical stroke also requires a re-direction of the bow on the highest and lowest pitch of each 3-note arpeggio group of notes. The quality of the re-directed staccato bow stroke should equal the thrown ricochet bow.

Canada's fiddle greats, Donnell Leahy and Natalie MacMaster

College Hornpipe

Benny Thomasson, 1982

The earliest known version of College Hornpipe can be found in a collection of 120 hornpipes published in the British Isles during the mid-1700s. The tune became a mainstay in the Texas-style old-time fiddle genre, which developed during the mid-20th century and was one of the first genres I delved into once I started playing fiddle.

Texas fiddling fascinated me at a young age because it seemed to be the most advanced, comprehensive, creative, and virtuosic of all the traditional fiddling genres. Much of that can be attributed to Benny Thomasson – widely regarded the “dean” of Texas fiddlers – whose variations on traditional tunes were complex, mesmerizing, and groundbreaking. Benny was aging when I was a young fiddler, but luckily for me, he opted to spend his retirement years on a river not too far from where I lived in Washington state.

Needless to say, I took advantage of the proximity. After hearing me play, Benny took me under his wing and invited me to take lessons from him in his cabin by the river. Over a period of about four years, I’d stay at Benny’s house every other weekend and learn Texas-style breakdowns, ragtime tunes, and hornpipes, including College Hornpipe  During our marathon lessons (some of them lasted over 12 hours!), Benny would show me many of his variations of traditional repertoire. He would challenge me to create my own, so every time I would return to his house for another lesson, I would play him my own variations, and he would help me refine them.

The version of College Hornpipe presented in this book features a combination of Benny’s and my variations. In fact, this transcription is not much different from the one I memorized as a 13 year-old. Generally speaking, the first half of each part is a variation developed by Benny, and the second half of each is a variation I developed. This basic structure (Benny’s first half, my second half) is characteristic of many versions of Texas fiddle tunes played today.

I have recorded College Hornpipe several times, perhaps the most notable being the string trio version with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer on my album Appalachia Waltz. That version features counterpoint for cello and double bass written by Edgar. In the duet version in this book, the 1st violin line is very similar to the tune as I learned and developed it with Benny, while the 2nd violin line is inspired by Edgar’s counterpoint.

Benny Thomasson at the Library of Congress in 1976

I had the great fortune of performing College Hornpipe with Yo-Yo and Edgar for the President of the United States in the mid-1990s. It is amazing to think how that tune traveled from a little shack on the banks of the Kalama River in Washington to a stage in our nation’s capital in front of the leaders of our country. Even today, Yo-Yo continues to play it, in particular as a warm-up etude before performances of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto. Texas fiddling and classical music may seem starkly different, but as the Appalachia Waltz project (and especially College Hornpipe  shows, the two genres are more alike than they might seem at first listen.

Mark O'Connor, Benny Thomasson, Jerry Thomasson at the Smithsonian, 1977

La Golondrina

Narciso Serradell Sevilla, Mexico

In 1861, Mexico was invaded by the Second French Empire, and Maximilian I (younger brother of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I) was instated as the monarch of what became known as the Second Mexican Empire. A young man named Narciso Serradell Sevilla was captured while resisting the invasion, and he was sent to France, where he taught music and Spanish for several years. In 1862, at age 19, Sevilla wrote a song called La Golondrina (“The Swallow”), which resonated with many of his fellow Mexican exiles because it told of a migrating swallow recalling its homeland.

After the reign of Maximilian I ended in 1867, Sevilla and many of his countrymen returned home, and thousands of members of the French army (including its marching band) fled into what is now the American Southwest. Concurrently, many Polish and German immigrants began settling in the same region, bringing along their native polkas and waltzes. Needless to say, the setting was ripe for musical development. The confluence of imported and regional traditions sparked the development of several new styles in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern U.S., including Norteño music and Western Swing. La Golondrina became a mainstay in the Western Swing repertoire by the 1930s and is now considered a classic of the style.

Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies, 1930s Texas

The tune has been recorded numerous times in different time signatures and under a variety of titles throughout the last century. The earliest known recording was made in 1906 by Señor Francisco, but perhaps better known are the recordings by Chet Atkins (instrumental, 1955), Nat King Cole (1962), and Placido Domingo (1984). Songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant rewrote the tune with English lyrics and entitled it She Wears My Ring, which was sung by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, and Ray Price, among others. It was also rewritten and recorded in German as Du sollst nicht weinen (“Thou Shalt Not Cry”, 1968) and in Swedish as Mitt Sommarlov (“My Summer Break”, 1970), both of which became chart-topping singles in Europe.

   

I remember hearing La Golondrina frequently at the fiddle contests I entered as a teenager, especially those in the western U.S. I always admired the beautiful double-stops (often in third intervals) and the apparent difficulty it took to pull them off. After learning the tune myself, I began using it essentially as a double-stop exercise.

The arrangement of La Golondrina presented here is based on a version of the tune popularized by Western Swing players Milton Brown, Cliff Bruner, and Bob Wills. I expand upon this version by incorporating almost every available double-stop interval in thirds between the 1st and 5th positions. You can now practice your thirds to the beautiful tune of La Golondrina!

Cliff Bruner and his Texas Wanderers, 1937

Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies, 1935

Canadian Medley (The Laird of Thrums Strathspey)

Jean Carignan, Quebec, Canada

The three pieces of music contained in the Carrignan medley; The Laird o’ Thrums Strathspey, The Laird of Drumblair Strathspey and The Gladstone Reel are all written by one of the greatest fiddle-composers of all time, the Scotsman James Scott Skinner.

Born in1847 in Aberdeen, Scotland and who also coincidentally shares my own birthday of August 5th, Skinner began composing for the violin at age 17, and in the end of his career, some 600 compositions mostly published by himself create a unique accomplishment in the world of fiddling. Reportedly Skinner went bankrupt with his publishing efforts as a business man, but his pieces are some of the most performed repertoire in Scottish folk music circles.

Skinner learned the violin and cello from his older brother and often played bass lines on the cello at dances when he was very young. He was accepted into a 6-year apprenticeship at age 11 to further his violin and cello studies in Manchester and performed throughout Britain as a child. Still in his teens, he took part in a Highland dancing competition in Ireland, winning first prize in the “Sword Dance” accompanying himself on fiddle and beating John McNeill, an acknowledged champion.

In the 1870s, Skinner performed concerts in Scotland and began to include his own compositions of Scottish fiddling repertoire in addition to the virtuoso violin pieces by Niccolo Paganini and others. In 1893 he toured the United States and Canada with wellknown piper and champion Highland Dance Willie MacLennan and by 1899 he was one of the very first Scottish musicians to be recorded. His well documented recording career lasted from 1905 to 1922. In 1911 he performed at the opening of the London Palladium and in 1925 was a top bill on five tours of the U.K. In 1926 Skinner returned to the United States to enter a reel and jig fiddle competition but had differences with the pianist and perhaps the rules of the contest and strode off the stage to default. But the legacy of his original pieces endured, inspiring the greatest fiddlers to come after him like Jean Carignan.

French-Canadian fiddling is one of the most exciting and virtuosic string styles in the Americas. It blends Scottish repertoire, particularly Strathspeys and other dance tunes, with elements of French and Native American styles. It is a beautiful example of musical cross-pollination, and one of its greatest practitioners is the fiddler Jean Carignan.

“Ti-Jean” Carignan was the ultimate folk violinist. He incorporated classical technique seamlessly into his renditions of French-Canadian, Irish, and Scottish tunes. Walking a fine line between “violin” and “fiddle” music, he achieved the best of both worlds. For the most part, Carignan avoided playing in higher positions in the interest of maintaining the “folk” quality of his music, but he fearlessly tackled spicatto bowing, pizzicato, 16th-note runs, and dramatic dynamic variations.

Carignan was born in 1916 in Lévis, Québec. His father, trained on the fiddle by a local Native American musician, performed at parties and dances throughout the Eastern Townships. Carignan picked up the fiddle and imitated his father’s regional style at a young age, but he also became inspired by early 78 rpm recordings of a number of other fiddlers, including Joseph Allard (a fellow Canadian), Michael Coleman and James Morrison (natives of Ireland), J. Scott Skinner (Scotland), and classical great Jascha Heifetz (Lithuania/U.S.). In spite of his father’s strong skepticism, Carignan pursued music vigorously and became a professional performer in his teens.

The way Carignan infused classical technique and sensitivity into his Irish, Scottish, and French-Canadian repertoire was unprecedented; however, his boldness came at a cost. The Québecois political movement of the 1960s and ‘70s coincided with the revival of folk traditions throughout the province, and Carignan was highly criticized for performing repertoire that wasn’t “native.” Apparently, he lost some close musical friends over the issue, but he defended his artistic choices, and indeed, he ultimately developed a style that spread far wider than the borders of Québec. He created his own musical language, and he spoke it with great fluency.

Carignan’s fiddling came to the attention of classical violin great Yehudi Menuhin, and the two recorded together and appeared as a duo on a number of television and radio broadcasts. The admiration Menuhin had for Carignan was apparent to all who witnessed their collaboration. “In his hands,” Meunhin once said, “the violin is a universal folk instrument with a creative vitality, a dynamic expression of its own…shaped by Jean’s own lively, inventive intelligence.”

The Strathspey – one of the Scottish dance forms that Carignan mastered – originated in the “strath,” or valley, of the River Spey in Northeast Scotland. As with most traditional dance forms, the tempos at which Strathspeys are performed have increased over time, especially as they have migrated from the dance hall to the stage. They are in 4/4, like reels, but their reliance on the “Scotch snap” gives them an altogether different groove. This dotted rhythm is short-long: a quick downbow followed by an aggressive upstroke that sustains longer. (You may recall that this is the opposite of ragtime, which utilizes a long-short bowing rhythm.) Strathspeys also utilize spicatto (bowing “off the string”) to accentuate the rhythmic pulse.