Stories of Standards: Caravan

Tune in weekday mornings for Stories of Standards to hear our favorite versions of “Caravan.” Rodney Franks presents Stories of Standards Monday through Friday at 7:50 and 8:50 a.m. starting Monday, April 29!

Stories of Standards is sponsored by ListenUp – If you love music, you’ll love ListenUp.

“Caravan” by Juan Tizol, was written in 1936 In Stuart Nicholson’s biography of Duke Ellington, “Reminiscing in Tempo”, Ellington is quoted as saying “… that’s one of those things Tizol came up with. See, it wasn’t in tempo, he stood [and played it] sort of ad lib. He played it, [the] first ten bars, we took it and worked out the rest of it.” More than 350 versions have been recorded.

As a child Juan Tizol (22 Jan 1900-23 Apr 1984) began his musical instruction with his uncle Manuel Tizol, director of the municipal band and the symphony in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1920 Juan traveled to Washington, D.C., where he was with a band at the Howard Theater playing for traveling bands, silent movies and small jazz or dance groups. He was asked to join Duke Ellington’s Orchestra here in 1929 and enlarged the trombone section from one to two players. Tizol’s sound blended so well with the saxophones that he often carried the lead melody with them. He was also outstandingly skilled in sight reading and overall musicianship.