Billy Strayhorn, music · Bill Comstock, lyrics (1958) · First recorded by Duke Ellington, 1941
Chelsea Bridge
Billy Strayhorn wrote Chelsea Bridge in 1941, and the Ellington orchestra recorded it that December. Strayhorn's biographer David Hajdu says it evokes the water beneath the . Hear it from the Ellington band, from Strayhorn alone at the piano, and from Mulligan and Webster, Joe Henderson and Keith Jarrett.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the Ellington orchestra and then Strayhorn alone at the piano. It moves on through saxophone-led groups and big bands, a guitarist, and a piano trio playing live in Paris.
Strayhorn wrote it in 1941, and the Ellington orchestra recorded it in Hollywood on December 2, 1941, with Strayhorn at the piano in place of Ellington. Ben Webster and Juan Tizol take the solos, and the record came out on a Victor 78 paired with What Good Would It Do?.
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Listen for
Billy Strayhorn, the composer, plays piano here instead of Ellington. Ben Webster's tenor saxophone and Juan Tizol's valve trombone take the solos, and the whole record runs under three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first eight slowly, one per bar: , , B♭m(maj7) and A♭m(maj7) together, , , , then . Hum the melody over them, and finish with D♭6, and in the last bar.
Twenty years after the Ellington record, Strayhorn recorded his own piece alone at the piano in Paris in May 1961. It came out on The Peaceful Side, a United Artists album, in 1963.
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Listen for
One piano plays from start to finish, with no band. It is a good place to hear the melody and the underneath it without anything else going on.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first on piano as slow, ringing , one per , the same eight bars as in step 1, and add the melody on top if you can. Smaller version: play only bars 1 to 4 and let each chord sound for the full bar.
Gerry Mulligan & Ben Webster · 1959 · Bebop, Swing
Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster
Ben Webster, who soloed on the 1941 Ellington record, played it again in Los Angeles in 1959 with baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. It opens their Verve album Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster, released in 1960.
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Listen for
Webster's tenor saxophone begins the piece, and Mulligan's lower baritone saxophone joins him. Piano, bass and drums play behind them for just over seven minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody of the first on your instrument, once through, with a backing track or a friend playing the eight from step 1. Smaller version: play only the first two and repeat them until they feel easy.
Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra recorded it in New York on April 27 and 28, 1960 for A Portrait of Duke Ellington, a Verve album of Ellington pieces.
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Listen for
At 2 minutes 34 seconds, this is the shortest version on the path, shorter than the Ellington band's 1941 record. A full orchestra plays the whole tune in that time.
Try it on your instrument
Play only the , 17 to 24, as slow : and , E maj7 and , F♯m7 and B7alt, and . Smaller version: play the first four of those bars, two chords to a bar, and go back to the first A.
Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson recorded it with a sextet at Plaza Sound Studios in New York on August 10, 1967, for his Milestone album The Kicker, issued in 1968.
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Listen for
A trumpet and a trombone join Henderson's tenor saxophone, so three horns play together over piano, bass and drums. This is a small group with a fuller horn sound than a quartet.
Try it on your instrument
Play the of the first on one instrument and the melody on another, or sing the melody over your own chords. If you can solo over changes, take one over the 32 . Smaller version: play the melody twice through.
Guitarist Kenny Burrell led a large band through Ellington pieces at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley on February 4 and 5, 1975. Chelsea Bridge is on the album Ellington Is Forever.
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Listen for
Burrell's guitar takes the lead, with a band that includes trumpets, saxophones and organ around him. Listen for the guitar out in front of the band.
Try it on your instrument
If you play guitar, play the first as shapes, one per , and pick out the melody on the higher notes. Smaller version: play just the chords in bars 1 to 4 and sing the melody.
Joe Henderson, who had recorded it with a sextet in 1967, came back to it with a full big band at The Power Station in New York on March 16, 1992. It was issued on the Verve album Big Band in 1996.
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Listen for
Compare it with Henderson's 1967 record. The tenor saxophonist is the same, and the band behind him now has a row of trumpets, trombones and saxophones.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 of the as at a slow pace: , , , then D♭6, and . Repeat them until the move back to the top feels smooth.
Keith Jarrett's trio played it live at the Palais des Congrès in Paris on July 5, 1999. It is on the two-disc ECM set Whisper Not, released in 2000.
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Listen for
Piano, bass and drums play together in front of an audience. At 9 minutes 46 seconds the track runs more than three times as long as the Ellington band's original.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole 32 once at a slow pace, melody in the right hand and one per bar in the left, for the . Smaller version: play just the last A (bars 25 to 32) and then stop on .
Billy Strayhorn writes the piece in 1941, and the Ellington orchestra records it in Hollywood on December 2, 1941, with Strayhorn at the piano and Ben Webster on tenor saxophone.
1950s
Ella Fitzgerald sings it without words with Ellington's orchestra in 1957. In 1959 Gerry Mulligan and Ben Webster play it in Los Angeles for Verve.
1960s
Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra records it in 1960, and Strayhorn plays it alone at the piano in Paris in 1961. Joe Henderson takes it up with a sextet in 1967.
1970s
Kenny Burrell leads a large band through it in Berkeley in 1975. Sarah Vaughan sings it on her Duke Ellington Song Book, Vol. 2.
1990s
Joe Henderson comes back to it with a big band in 1992, and Keith Jarrett's trio plays it live in Paris in 1999.
More great versions
3 more, from 1957 to 1979. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sElla Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington1957 · Big band
1960sMilt Jackson and Big Brass1963 · Hard bop
1970sSarah Vaughan1979 · Big band
Ella Fitzgerald & Duke Ellington and His Orchestra
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
D♭ majorusual key
32 barsA · A · B · A form
D♭ → E, then A, then G → D♭key centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
D♭
E, then A, then G
D♭
The tune is 32 in four 8-bar sections, . Each A opens with and , a bar each, then both in bar 3. , and follow, and the section settles on in bar 7. Bar 8 runs D♭6, and into the next section. The moves quickly with two in most bars: B7, , F♯m7 B7alt, , , , C7, and C7 B7 back into the last A.