As on Money Jungle, a United Artists release recently reissued by Classic and reviewed on this site, this record puts Duke Ellington in a rare trio setting, this time with the percussive anchor Sam Woodyard on drums and Aaron Bell on bass—the Ellington orchestra’s rhythm section.

Feeling at home, and less anxious to compete with Mingus’s aggressiveness, Ellington is in a mostly sunny and always highly focused mood opening with the familiar “I Can’t Get Started,” in a straightforward stride style, with big, left hand bass chords that even in 1961 when this session was recorded (all in a single day), must have sounded somewhat “traditional.”

Anyone thinking Ellington was sticking to a safe, straightforward agenda based on the opener, was in for a big surprise as this eleven tune set is all over the musical map, with explosive, percussive tirades like “Cong-Go,” spare, slinky vamps like “Blues For Jerry,” and the ornate, harmonically lush “Fontainebleau Forest,” accompanied by Aaron Bell’s gorgeous bowed bass work.

Side two opens with a simmering, adventurous percussive-rich take on “Summertime.” Woodyard sounds as if he’s tapping the last morsels from a cardboard food canister, while Ellington expresses an appropriately bitter, angry summer of discontent (this was the early 1960’s after all, a time when the civil rights movement was demanding change), amplified by Bell’s slashing, bowed bass. It’s a jarring, impressionist and powerful reading unlike any other version you may have heard.

Classic’s reissue is a remix from the original 3 track recording. For some odd reason, on “Summertime,” for instance, the original mixer chose to put Ellington in one channel and Woodyard and Bell in the other. The remix puts Ellington front and center, with Bell left and Woodyard right, and placed well back in the mix as he’s heard on the original.

Dynamically and spatially, it’s no contest. The reissue wins by a wide margin, though some listeners may not prefer the “in your face” piano, compared to the original’s somewhat more laid back and soft presentation. Turn the volume down.

This gem puts Ellington’s rhythmic, harmonic and dynamic creativity on full display, and the 30th Street recording delivers it with stunning purity. This and Piano in the Background alsom issued by Classic make a great intro to Ellington, giving listeners both the big band and solo Duke in superlative stereo sound. If the piano breaks up when Duke hits it hard, the problem is in your front end, not in the record.