Passion Flower is a jazz ballad written by Billy Strayhorn in 1941. It was first recorded by Johnny Hodges with a small group, with Strayhorn’s arrangement, and later performed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra in a different Strayhorn arrangement on radio in 1945. The Jazz Lines Publications edition published in 1956 presents a big-band arrangement that features a prominent alto saxophone solo and is marked as difficult due to the trumpet 1 range (F6) and a rhythmically challenging shout section. The tune was later recorded by Ella Fitzgerald with the Duke Ellington Orchestra for the 1965 album Ella at Duke’s Place, with lyrics supplied by Milton Raskin. This piece sits squarely in the Ellington-Strayhorn repertoire, growing from a small-group recording to a full big-band feature in the jazz canon.
