Musicians :
Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn (piano), Ray Nance, Cat Anderson, Shorty Baker, Clark Terry (trumpet), Britt Woodman, Matthew Gee, Quentin Jackson (trombone), John Sanders (valve trombone), Johnny Hodges (alto saxophone), Russell Procope (alto saxophone, clarinet), Harry Carney (baritone saxophone), Jimmy Woode (bass), Jimmy Johnson, Sam Woodyard (drums)

"Blues In Orbit is an album worth tracking down, if only to hear the band run through a lighter side of its sound - indeed, it captures the essence of a late-night recording date that was as much a loose jam as a formal studio date, balancing the spontaneity of the former and the technical polish of the latter. Ellington and company were just back from a European tour when the bulk of this album was recorded, at one after-midnight session in New York on December 2, 1959, to arrangements that had to be hastily written out when the copyist failed to appear for the gig. So on the one hand, the band was kicking back with these shorter pieces; on the other, the group was also improvising freely and intensely at various points. The title track, recorded more than a year before most of the rest, is a slow blues that puts Ellington's piano into a call-and-response setting with the horns, with Ellington getting in the last word". - All Music Guide