Home » Jazz Musicians » Betty Roche

Betty Roche

Betty Roche’s recording of "Take the A Train" with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1952 has remained one of the most famous and enduring of Ellington's recordings, and the song with which she is associated.

Born Mary Elizabeth Roche in Wilmington, Delaware on Jan. 9, 1920, she began her career by winning a talent contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem when she was 17. This led eventually to her joining the Savoy Sultans, the resident band at the Savoy Ballroom, in 1941. Typifying the episodic nature of Roche's career, the band broke up soon after she joined it. She made her first record on the band's last recording session, a song called "At's In There." She also sang briefly for bands led by the tenor sax player Lester Young and trumpeter Hot Lips Page.

She traveled to Hollywood in 1942 with the Ellington band to make the film Reveille With Beverly (also featuring Frank Sinatra and the Count Basie and Bob Crosby bands). Roche was to sing "Take the A Train". As she sang "You'll find it's the quickest way to get to Harlem", the train was shown - typical of Hollywood - racing across the open prairie. The American musicians' union (the AFM) had imposed a ban on recording that lasted throughout Roche's period with Ellington and she was thus denied the fame that would undoubtedly have come to her had she featured on the band's records.

In January 1943 Ellington's became the first black band to give a concert at Carnegie Hall. That evening he gave the first performance of one of his most controversial compositions, his 45-minute "Black, Brown and Beige" suite. Roche sang the famous "Blues" section, with its pyramid- like construction of lyrics. The concert was recorded, but the results were not issued until 40 years later. By the time Ellington recorded a studio version in 1944, Roche had left the band.

Roche left Ellington during 1943, eventually joining the band led by the pianist Earl Hines in 1944, with whom she also recorded. Again, she didn't stay long, and left music altogether for a number of years, unexpectedly rejoining Ellington in 1951. In June 1952 she recorded the extended version of "Take the A Train" with the band, and this became so successful that Ellington repeated it in all his broadcasts of the time. It was to be the high point of her career, and when she left the band again in 1954 Ray Nance, a highly original trumpeter and singer with the band, continued to use the version of the song that Roche had created. The album that included Roche's performance of the song is still a big seller today, and it is this version, rather than the original solely instrumental version that most people remember.

Read more

Tags

50
Radio & Podcasts

BIG January Birthday Salutes!

Read "BIG January Birthday Salutes!" reviewed by Marc Cohn


BIG, I mean BIG January birthday salutes on Gifts & Messages this week: 120th birth anniversary for trombonists Juan Tizol and Wilbur De Paris; 110th for Django Reinhardt; 100th for vocalist Betty Roché and saxophonist Jimmy Forrest; 90th for saxophonist Jack Nimitz, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and pianist/vibraphonist Buddy Montgomery. And special birthday greetings to bassist Eberhard Weber, still with us, at 80! Along the way we celebrate Joe Pass, Chris Potter, Stephane Grappelli, and J.J. Johnson. Finally, my annual tribute ...

Read more articles
144

Music Industry

When Betty Met the Duke: Betty Roche

When Betty Met the Duke: Betty Roche

Source: Night Lights Classic Jazz

“Betty Roche was an unforgettable singer," Duke Ellington wrote of his former vocalist in 1973. “She never sounded like anybody but Betty Roche." Roche, the so-called “blues specialist" whom some consider to be one of the best vocalists Ellington ever had, replaced the popular Ivie Anderson in Ellington's band in late 1942, just as the American Federation of Musicians ban on commercial recordings was about to take effect; it was the first of several bad breaks that gave her an ...

Photos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.