Duke Ellington’s centennial in 1999 produced more musical offerings — tribute concerts, reissues, and newly unearthed recordings — than even an insatiable Ellingtonian like myself could absorb. Though precious few reissues or Ellington-inspired concerts have come along since then, the Duke is back in vogue this summer. Indeed, Mosaic Records has re-released a rare and desirable Ellington album, 1958’s “The Cosmic Scene,” and announced that a long-awaited, sevenvolume box set of early Ellington will be out in the fall. In addition, Stefon Harris is about to release a new recording of his interpretations of two Ellington suites.

On Tuesday night, the producer and pianist Bill Charlap launched the 2006 Jazz in July series at the 92nd Street Y with an all-star concert of the Maestro’s music. The evening featured two star pianists, Mr.Charlap and Bill Mays, alongside a band composed of the veteran tenor saxophonist Frank Wess (who recorded with Ellington in 1961), trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, bassist Ray Drummond, and drummer Kenny Washington.

The portions of the program focusing on the piano were outstanding. Each pianist opened his set with an early Ellington keyboard work that he followed with a re-interpretation of a familiar Ellington song. Mr. Charlap kicked off the first half with two unaccompanied numbers: “Jubilee Stomp,” played about 90 times faster than the Duke did, followed by “Sophisticated Lady.” In his solos, Mr. Charlap used the familiar Ellington piano sound, with its famous romantic chromaticisms, and continually referred back to the melody as if to remind you that this wasn’t any old tune — this was Ellington.

Mr. Mays opened Act II with “Black Beauty,” in an accurate transcription of the 1928 solo recording. He followed it with “Don’t You Know I Care,” played in waltz time alongside Mr. Drummond’s bass, and “I’m Just a Lucky So-and-So,” which added Mr. Washington’s drums. But his showstopper was “Dancers in Love,” a movement from 1944’s “The Perfume Suite”; though Ellington wrote the tune as a solo feature for “the piano player” (as he like to refer to himself in the third person), Mr. Mays expanded it into a quartet number.This was a brilliant illustration of the uses of tradition: Not only did he faithfully reproduce the flavor of Ellington’s treatment, but he added several choruses of improvisation for both himself and vibraphonist Joe Locke.

In each of these numbers, Messrs. Charlap and Mays showed zest and an eagerness to take chances with the material. The same could not be said of the band numbers, however. The horns, strangely, lacked energy and enthusiasm, and the band seemed to be playing it safe during ensemble passages. The only hornbased number that was everything it should have been was “All Too Soon,” the classic Ellington ballad associated with Ben Webster, which Mr. Wess played in a blue mood while bathed in a blue spotlight.

There were other shining moments that redeemed the evening, though: Messrs. Charlap and Mays joined in a four-handed rendition of Billy Strayhorn’s heavily syncopated, Gershwin-inspired finger-buster “Tonk,” Mr. Locke delivered an evocatively exotic “Caravan,” and guitarist Peter Bernstein offered a compelling transcription of the 1953 piano work “Melancholia.” The evening concluded on a high note, when Carol Sloane sang an exhilarating version of “Cotton Tail.”

Ellington originally orchestrated this variation on “I Got Rhythm” to feature the aggressive tenor style of Ben Webster. The lyric added 20 years later by Jon Hendricks sets the melody and the tenor solo into a Looney Tunes-like tale of rascally rabbits and fuddy-duddy farmers. I still associate Ms. Sloane with the highly personal, moving ballads she sang on her 1999 album “Romantic Ellington,” but it’s good to know that when she wants to please a big, concertsized crowd, like the one at the 92nd St Y, that she can always pull this particular rabbit out of her hat.

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“The Cosmic Scene” was not performed by the full Ellington orchestra but by a nine-piece satellite band that he, fitting, described on the cover as the “Spacemen.” He claimed it was nominally inspired by the early explorations of outer space, but there’s nothing on it that’s the least bit astrophysical.

Like much of Ellington’s music, the “Cosmic Scene” was driven by contrasts and ironic juxtapositions. Despite the futuristic allusions, the album consists primarily of such ancient standards as “Avalon” and “St. Louis Blues.” Even though Ellington assembled a brass-heavy line-up, including the entire trombone section (Quentin Jackson, John Sanders, and Britt Woodman), he chose to feature the two reed players, clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton and tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves.

The irrepressible Gonsalves steals the show with a wild, exuberant solo on “Body and Soul,” including lots of left-field quotes. The Mosaic reissue includes both the original master take of the tune and a newly unearthed alternate; while the melody sections are quite different, Gonsalves’s improvised portion is similar in the two performances. In fact, both feature Gonsalves quoting Raymond Scott’s “The Toy Trumpet,” and that’s something you don’t hear every day.

Other Jazz in July events will take place on July 25, 26 & 27 (Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, 212-415-5500).