構成数 | 1枚

合計収録時間 | 00:35:42

Personnel: Duke Ellington (piano); Billy Strayhorn (piano, celeste); Oscar Pettiford (cello); Wendell Marshall, Joe Shulman, Lloyd Trotman (bass); Jo Jones (drums). Includes liner notes by Jack Maher. These unique performances were recorded in 1950 and were originally released as 10-inch LPs. They were combined in their present form in 1964 on Riverside (475). Includes liner notes by Jack Maher. Digitally remastered by Joe Tarantino (Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California). According to the liner notes, Leonard Feather got the idea for this recording from an elegant piece of party schtick in which Ellington and Strayhorn would play four-handed on a single piano. As recorded here, that piece, "Tonk," and seven others are not strictly duets, in that the pair of composers (presumably playing two separate pianos in the studio) are joined by a bassist. Still, one can see why Feather was charmed into preserving the idea on tape. "Tonk" is, in fact, an exquisite miniature, by turns stormy and whimsical, as if Rimsky-Korsakov and Rumpelstiltskin sat down to play "Chopsticks" for a silent movie. Elsewhere, the two pianists evoke a kind of relaxed, swinging telepathy, as on the rolling, four-to-the-bar "Bang-Up Blues," which exudes both ease and confidence. On "Johnny Come Lately" the duo conjures up the reeds and brass they would ordinarily have at their disposal. Four additional tunes round out this reissue; they are of a similar vintage but include Jo Jones on drums and feature Oscar Pettiford on the cello. Strayhorn plays celeste on two of these cuts.

録音 | モノラル (Studio)