Piano in the Foreground

Reception

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4 stars and stated "This rare trio session by Duke Ellington was the first of several in the early '60s that featured his piano in a variety of settings. It is particularly interesting hearing Ellington, along with three standards and a blues, performing some of his rarer compositions... One wishes that today's revivalists when playing "the Duke Ellington Songbook" would bring back some of his true obscurities such as the ones on this somewhat forgotten session".

Track listing

:All compositions by Duke Ellington except as indicated

1. "I Can't Get Started" (Vernon Duke, Ira Gershwin) - 4:23
2. "Cong-Go" (Aaron Bell, Ellington) - 4:16
3. "Body and Soul" (Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton, Johnny Green) - 4:49
4. "Blues for Jerry" - 4:38
5. "Fontainebleau Forest" - 2:53
6. "Summertime" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Dubose Heyward) - 3:52
7. "It's Bad to Be Forgotten" - 3:22
8. "A Hundred Dreams Ago" - 2:26
9. "So" - 4:33
10. "Searching (Pleading for Love)" - 1:49
11. "Springtime in Africa" (Bell, Ellington) - 3:46
12. "Lotus Blossom" (Billy Strayhorn) - 3:18
13. "All the Things You Are" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern) - 4:00 Bonus track on CD reissue
14. "All the Things You Are" [alternate take] (Hammerstein, Kern) - 3:51 Bonus track on CD reissue
15. "Piano Improvisation No. 2" - 3:25 Bonus track on CD reissue
16. "Piano Improvisation No. 3" - 2:48 Bonus track on CD reissue
17. "Piano Improvisation No. 4" - 1:53 Bonus track on CD reissue
18. "Piano Improvisation No. 1" - 9:45 Bonus track on CD reissue

Recorded:

at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio on March 20, 1957 (tracks 15-18) (stereo)at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio on October 10, 1957 (tracks 13-14) (monaural)at Radio Recorders, Los Angeles on March 1, 1961 (tracks 1-11) & March 2, 1961 (track 12) (stereo)

Personnel

Duke Ellington – piano

Aaron Bell - bass (#1-12)

Jimmy Woode - bass (#13-18)

Sam Woodyard - drums