Night Train

Jimmy Forest (1920–1980)

The opening riff of this piece was originally recorded by Duke Ellington sideman Johnny Hodges in an instrumental composition called “That’s The Blues, Old Man”. Ellington used the same riff as opening and closing theme for the composition “Happy-Go-Lucky-Local”, which was one of four parts of a longer piece, the “Deep South Suite”. Jimmy Forrest was a member of the Ellington band at the time, and went on to expand the riffs into a funkier R & B format.