Tempus Fugit is an instrumental bebop composition by the American jazz pianist Bud Powell (1924-1966), written in 1949. Some references spell the title "Tempus Fugue-it". The title is a pun on the Latin phrase "tempus fugit" ("time flies"), a reference to the very fast tempo at which the piece is played. Despite its name, it is not a fugue in compositional form. The original recording was made in 1949 by the Bud Powell Trio, with Ray Brown on bass and Max Roach on drums, for the Jazz Giant sessions produced by Norman Granz. It was first issued in 1950 on a 78 rpm record on the Mercury and Norgran labels. The critic Mike Hobart of the Financial Times called it a "modernist masterpiece". Powell returned to the piece in 1963, during his home recordings with Francis Paudras. Later recordings were made by Miles Davis, with a sextet in 1953, and by Chet Baker, Stan Getz and Ted Rosenthal, among others.
