Recorded in 1960,
Piano in the Background's title is a bit of a misnomer. While it's true that
Duke Ellington often didn't appear on his recordings at all and this one is designed to showcase a series of new arrangements for
the Ellington Orchestra, it also offers the composer and bandleader as a pianist leading the band. All of the album's original nine cuts, as well as its five bonus tracks, are introduced by the man himself at the ivories, and he also takes each one out. The selection here is a beauty: from "Happy Go Lucky Local" from "Deep South Suite" and the nearly forgotten "What Am I Here For," to a medley of "Kinda Dukish," "Rockin' in Rhythm," "Perdido," "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," and "I'm Beginning to See the Light," to
Billy Strayhorn's classics "Take the 'A' Train" and "Midriff." These arrangements are crisp, sometimes startling, and dynamically performed. The bonus material includes
Strayhorn's "Dreamy Sort of Thing" and a couple takes of
George Shearing's "Lullaby of Birdland" as well as
Gerald Wilson's awesome "The Wailer." There is also a slippery read of
the Duke's "Harlem Air Shaft," which was recorded at a session in 1961 and was previously unreleased. In all, this and the two discs that were reissued as companions to this one,
Piano in the Foreground and
Blues in Orbit, mark a highly creative and productive time in
Ellington's long career. ~ Thom Jurek