In this particular piece, Duke Ellington used layering to give the song an orchestral feel and blended it with improvisations. Duke Ellington used specific techniques when he composed and arranged his music and one of those techniques was voicing across sections. In “Harlem Airshaft”, he uses this technique with the saxophones and the trumpets in the first chorus at 0' 15" and again with the trombones and the saxophones in the third chorus at 1' 35". Voicing across sections and layering instruments was a key characteristic of Duke Ellington’s composing style. The prewritten parts for the band were mixed with the improvisations from the trumpet and clarinet. The trumpet improvisation starts in the second chorus at 1' 00" and the clarinet improvisation
