Duke Ellington teams up here with bassist Ray Brown in a set reminiscent of Duke's work with Jimmy Blanton three decades before. In addition to the four-part "Fragmented Suite for Piano and Bass," the duo plays five standards (including "Pitter Panther Patter" from the Blanton days and three other Ellington-associated tunes).
When he died in 1942, 21-year-old Blanton had liberated the string bass from its traditional role as an accompanist. Brown, and another Blanton disciple, Oscar Pettiford, carried forward Blanton's work of developing the bass into a solo instrument.