''Great Times!'' is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

. It features duet performances with his arranger and musical partner

Billy Strayhorn William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the ...

originally recorded for the Mercer Records label in 1950, and later released on a 10" LP called ''Piano Duets''. The sessions were re-released by Riverside as ''Great Times!'' in 1984 with tracks from an additional session with

Oscar Pettiford Oscar Pettiford (September 30, 1922 – September 8, 1960) was an American jazz double bassist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom. Jazz bassist Christian McBride called Pettiford "probably the most imp ...

Reception

The

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

review by

Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author. Life and career Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Beginning in 1974, Yanow was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles and was the jazz e ...

awarded the album 4 stars, calling it "quite fascinating... most memorable. Intriguing music". AllMusic Reviewaccessed May 25, 2010

Track listing

'':All compositions by Duke Ellington except as indicated'' # " Cotton Tail" – 2:55 # " C Jam Blues" (

Barney Bigard Albany Leon "Barney" Bigard (March 3, 1906 – June 27, 1980) was an American jazz clarinetist known for his 15-year tenure with Duke Ellington. He also played tenor saxophone. Biography Bigard was born in New Orleans to Creoles of color, Cr ...

, Ellington) – 2:58 # "

Flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes () are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbe ...

" (Edmund Anderson,

Ted Grouya Ted Grouya (31 July 1910 – 14 April 2000) born Teodor Gruia in Bucharest, Romania, was a Romanian-American composer who studied composition with Nadia Boulanger. He wrote the jazz standard "Flamingo" (1940), first recorded by Herb Jeffries an ...

) – 3:00 # "Bang–Up Blues" – 3:08 # "Tonk" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 2:59 # "Johnny Come Lately" (Strayhorn) – 3:01 # "In a Blue Summer Garden" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 4:06 # "Great Times" – 2:56 # " Perdido" (

Juan Tizol Juan Tizol Martínez (22 January 1900 – 23 April 1984) was a Puerto Rican jazz trombonist and composer. He is best known as a member of Duke Ellington's big band, and for writing the jazz standards " Caravan", "Pyramid", and " Perdido". ...

) –2:57 # " Take the "A" Train" (Strayhorn) – 2:20 # "Oscalypso" (

) – 2:44 # "Blues for Blanton" – 2:36 :*Recorded in New York on September 13 (tracks 9–12), October 3 (tracks 5–8) & November (tracks 1–4), 1950

Personnel

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

– piano (tracks 1–8), celeste (tracks 10 & 11) *

–

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

(tracks 9–12) * Wendell Marshall (tracks 1–4), Joe Schulman (tracks 5–8),

Lloyd Trotman Lloyd Nelson Trotman (May 25, 1923 – October 3, 2007), born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, was an American jazz bassist, who backed numerous jazz, dixieland, R&B, and rock and roll artists in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He resided i ...

(tracks 9–12) –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

Jo Jones Jonathan David Samuel Jones (October 7, 1911 – September 3, 1985) was an American jazz drummer. A band leader and pioneer in jazz percussion, Jones anchored the Count Basie Orchestra rhythm section from 1934 to 1948. He was sometimes k ...

(tracks 9–12), Unknown (tracks 1–4) –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

References

{{Authority control Riverside Records albums Duke Ellington albums 1950 albums Billy Strayhorn albums