The Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet's rendition of Billy Strayhorn's "Take The 'A' Train" from the 1955 Study In Brown album transforms Duke Ellington's signature tune into a showcase for high-energy hard bop improvisation. Strayhorn composed this piece in 1939, and it became the Ellington Orchestra's theme song, one of the most recognizable melodies in jazz. Here the quintet takes it at a driving tempo of approximately 272 BPM, with the 32-bar AABA form in C providing a familiar framework for three focused solos. Harold Land opens with a single chorus of tenor saxophone, setting the pace with confident, swinging lines. Clifford Brown follows with two exhilarating choruses of trumpet improvisation, accelerating the tempo slightly to 279 BPM as his creative energy intensifies. Pianist Richie Powell brings the solo section to a close with a single chorus at an even faster clip of 290 BPM, matching the mounting excitement. The progressive acceleration across the solos is a subtle but effective structural device that builds momentum toward the final statement of the theme. This recording demonstrates the quintet's ability to take a universally known standard and make it their own, infusing Strayhorn's elegant composition with the fire and technical brilliance that defined the Brown-Roach partnership.
