Caravan (Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington song)
"Caravan" is an American jazz standard that was composed by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington and first performed by Ellington in 1936. Irving Mills wrote lyrics, but they are rarely sung. The exotic sound of "Caravan" interested exotica musicians; Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman, and Gordon Jenkins all covered it. Woody Allen used the song in two of his films, "Alice" and "Sweet and Lowdown". Steven Soderbergh used the Lyman version in his 2001 film "Ocean's Eleven". The song appears often in the 2014 film "Whiplash" as an important plot element. The Mills  Brothers recorded an a cappella version in which they imitated instruments with their voices. Johnny Mathis recorded the song in 1956. More than 350 versions have been recorded. Original recording. The first version of the song was recorded in Hollywood in 1936 and performed as an instrumental by Barney Bigard and His Jazzopators. Two takes were recorded, of which the first (Variety VA-515-1) was published. The band members were: The musicians were members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, which often split into smaller combinations to record songs under different band names. For this recording, which included Ellington and Tizol  as performers, the session band leader was Bigard. Santana's "La Fuente del Ritmo" from the 1972 album "Caravanserai" borrows the melodic line of "Caravan", although the song is credited to percussionist James Mingo Lewis of Santana.