Night Train
Count Basie Ochestra
A spirited version of the Jimmy Forrest r&b hit
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Tenor-saxophonist Jimmy Forrest’s recording of “Night Train” was a giant hit in 1951 and has been a standard ever since.
Few probably realize that Forrest “borrowed” the tune’s full melody from the last part of Duke Ellington’s “Happy-Go-Lucky Local,” recorded by Ellington a few years earlier and still in Duke’s repertoire when Forrest was briefly a member of his big band in 1949.
No matter, Forrest is seen here with the Count Basie at the University Of Kansas in the mid-1970s playing a colorful version of the bluesy number.
This rendition appeared in the documentary The Last Of The Blue Devils.
-Scott Yanow
