Great Times!

---

title: "Great Times!" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["riverside-records-albums", "duke-ellington-albums", "1950-albums", "billy-strayhorn-albums"] topic_path: "arts/music" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Times!" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox album"]

Field	Value
name	Great Times!
type	compilation
artist	Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn
cover	Great Times!.jpeg
released	1964
recorded	September 13, October 3 & November, 1950
genre	Jazz
length	35:40
label	Riverside
chronology	Duke Ellington
prev_title	The Carnegie Hall Concerts: December 1947
prev_year	1947
next_title	Masterpieces by Ellington
next_year	1951
misc	{{Extra chronology
artist	Billy Strayhorn
type	Album
title	Great Times!
year	1950
next_title	Cue for Saxophone
next_year	1959
::

| name = Great Times! | type = compilation | artist = Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn | cover = Great Times!.jpeg | alt = | released = 1964 | recorded = September 13, October 3 & November, 1950 | venue = | studio = | genre = Jazz | length = 35:40 | label = Riverside | producer = | chronology = Duke Ellington | prev_title = The Carnegie Hall Concerts: December 1947 | prev_year = 1947 | next_title = Masterpieces by Ellington | next_year = 1951 | misc = {{Extra chronology | artist = Billy Strayhorn | type = Album | prev_title = | prev_year = | title = Great Times! | year = 1950 | next_title = Cue for Saxophone | next_year = 1959

Great Times! is an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington. It features duet performances with his arranger and musical partner Billy Strayhorn 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.

Reception

The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow called the album "quite fascinating... most memorable. Intriguing music". | rev1 = AllMusic | rev1Score = |rev2 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |rev2score =

Track listing

:All compositions by Duke Ellington except as indicated

1. "Cotton Tail" – 2:55
2. "C Jam Blues" (Barney Bigard, Ellington) – 2:58
3. "Flamingo" (Edmund Anderson, Ted Grouya) – 3:00
4. "Bang–Up Blues" – 3:08
5. "Tonk" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 2:59
6. "Johnny Come Lately" (Strayhorn) – 3:01
7. "In a Blue Summer Garden" (Ellington, Strayhorn) – 4:06
8. "Great Times" – 2:56
9. "Perdido" (Juan Tizol) –2:57
10. "Take the "A" Train" (Strayhorn) – 2:20
11. "Oscalypso" (Oscar Pettiford) – 2:44
12. "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

• Duke Ellington – piano
• Billy Strayhorn – piano (tracks 1–8), celeste (tracks 10 & 11)
• Oscar Pettiford – cello (tracks 9–12)
• Wendell Marshall (tracks 1–4), Joe Schulman (tracks 5–8), Lloyd Trotman (tracks 9–12) – bass
• Jo Jones (tracks 9–12), Unknown (tracks 1–4) – drums

References

References

1. [{{AllMusic
2. (2008). "[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz". [[Penguin Books.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::