Caravan (1936 song)

For other uses, see Caravan (disambiguation).

"Caravan" is a jazz standard composed by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington, and first performed by Ellington in 1936. Irving Mills wrote seldom performed lyrics. Its exotic sound interested exotica musicians; Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, and Gordon Jenkins all covered it. Woody Allen used the song in two of his films, Alice and Sweet and Lowdown. The song is also heavily featured in the 2014 film Whiplash as an important plot element. The Mills Brothers recorded an a cappella version, making the instruments' sounds with their voices, and Johnny Mathis recorded the song in 1956. There are more than 350 recordings of this song by Duke Ellington's orchestra, the great majority of them now in the public domain.

Original recording

The first version of the song was recorded in Hollywood in 1936, performed as an instrumental by Barney Bigard and his Jazzopators. Two takes were recorded, of which the first (Variety VA-515-1) was published. The band members were:

• Cootie Williams - trumpet
• Juan Tizol - trombone
• Barney Bigard - clarinet
• Harry Carney - baritone saxophone
• Duke Ellington - piano
• Billy Taylor - bass
• Sonny Greer - drums

All the players were members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, which often split into smaller combinations to record songs under different band names. For this recording, which included Ellington and song composer Tizol as performers, the session band leader was Bigard.

Other versions

• Santo & Johnny released in 1959 from the album Santo & Johnny
• Duane Eddy recorded on the label Gregmark Records in 1961
• A version arranged by John Wasson was included in the 2014 film Whiplash as one of the main songs jazz student Andrew Neiman has to learn.

See also

• List of 1930s jazz standards