This tune is written in the classic Tin Pan Alley 32 bar form – AABA. The “B” is for the bridge that contrasts with the repetitive 8 bar phrase. So many great songs of the 20’s through 40’s use this form with songwriter/composers, such as Kern, Gershwin, Porter, Berlin, Rodgers and more. The story behind this particular tune is so well known. Duke Ellington asked Pittsburgh Pianist/Composer Billy Strayhorn to visit him on the Upper West Side of New York City. Billy arrived with this tune to honor Duke. Duke loved it so…that he made it the theme song for the Ellington Orchestra. Billy and Duke were inseparable until Billy’s untimely death. I remember hearing Brubeck’s quartet in the early 1980’s and was so struck that his band’s encore was ‘A Train’. This performance, was the encore for the 2016 Jazz Christmas concert, held at the Laird Center of the Tatnall School, features the gifted vibraphonist, Wes Morton and the late Ed Kirkpatrick on alto saxophone. I am certain that Ed is now sitting in from time to time in Ellington’s Celestial Big Band.