Wax Poetics: Take a train to Sugar Hill

Taken from Wax Poestics 'Today In History'

http://www.waxpoetics.com/2011/02/take-the-a-train-to-sugar-hill/

Duke Ellington (left) and Billy Strayhorn (right)

It’s been seventy years since Duke Ellington recorded Take the A Train, an album that includes one of the most important American musical works of the twentieth century. The title track has become a jazz standard that stirs up memories of Old New York, when Harlem was experiencing its renaissance. Today, the A train remains one of New York City’s most heavily traveled lines, taking straphangers from 207th Street in the Bronx to Far Rockaway in Queens, nearly thirty-one miles away. With stops in areas like Sugar Hill and Jamaica, it’s no surprise that many hip-hop artists have referenced the A train in their lyrics, including Jeru the Damaja on Gang Starr’s “Speak Ya Clout.”