First Time! The Count Meets the Duke

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First Time! The Count Meets the Duke
First Time! The Count Meets the Duke.jpg
Studio album by
Released1961
RecordedJuly 6, 1961
Studio Columbia 30th Street, New York City
Genre Jazz
Length40:58 (original release)
73:43 (1999 expanded and remastered edition)
Label Columbia
Producer Teo Macero
Duke Ellington chronology
Paris Blues
(1961)
First Time! The Count Meets the Duke
(1961)
The Girl's Suite and The Perfume Suite
(1961)
Count Basie chronology
Basie at Birdland
(1961)
First Time! The Count Meets the Duke
(1961)
The Legend
(1961)

First Time! The Count Meets the Duke is an album by American pianists, composers and bandleaders Duke Ellington and Count Basie with their combined Orchestras recorded and released on the Columbia label in 1961. [1]

Contents

On stereo releases of the album, Basie's band is featured on the left channel and Ellington's on the right.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]
Down Beat Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [5]

The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars calling it "a very successful and surprisingly uncrowded encounter. On most selections Ellington and Basie both play piano (their interaction with each other is wonderful) and the arrangements allowed the stars from both bands to take turns soloing". [2]

Track listing

All compositions by Duke Ellington except as indicated

  1. "Battle Royal" - 5:33
  2. "To You" (Thad Jones) - 3:53
  3. "Take the 'A' Train (Billy Strayhorn) - 3:46
  4. "Corner Pocket" [a.k.a. "Until I Met You"] (Freddie Green, Donald Wolf) - 4:53
  5. "Wild Man" [a.k.a. "Wild Man Moore"] - 6:20
  6. "Segue in C" (Frank Wess) - 8:22
  7. "B D B" (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:43
  8. "Jumpin' at the Woodside" (Count Basie) - 3:09
1999 CD Reissue Bonus Tracks
  1. "One More Once" - 3:25
  2. "Take the 'A' Train" [alternate take] (Strayhorn) - 5:50
  3. "Jumpin' at the Woodside" [alternate take] (Basie) - 3:14
  4. "B D B" [alternate take] (Ellington, Strayhorn) - 4:30
  5. "Blues in Hoss' Flat" (Basie, Frank Foster) - 3:13
  6. "Wild Man" [alternate take] - 5:55
  7. "Battle Royal" [alternate take] - 6:32

Personnel

References

  1. "A Duke Ellington Panorama". Archived from the original on April 23, 2010. Retrieved May 17, 2010.
  2. 1 2 Yanow, Scott. First Time! The Count Meets the Duke at AllMusic
  3. Down Beat : May 10, 1962 vol. 29, no. 10
  4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 440. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
  5. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 69. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.