Ray Brown Trio

Ray Bryant's first solo piano album is rightfully considered a classic. Bryant, at the time thought of as a young modern traditionalist, has always felt perfectly at home playing the blues. He performs five original and diverse blues on this set along with "Lover Man" and "Rockin' Chair," showing that he really never needed a bassist or a drummer to sound like a complete band. This Prestige album was reissued in the Original Jazz Classics but thus far only as an LP; highly recommended in any case.

This superb album solidified pianist Gene Harris' return to the jazz major leagues. Teamed up with bassist Ray Brown, drummer Mickey Roker, and tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, Harris stretches out on such songs as Ray Brown's blues "Gene's Lament," "Things Ain't What They Used to Be," "Yours Is My Heart Alone," and "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Harris and Turrentine work together so well on this soulful blues/bop date that one wishes they had teamed up much more often.

Dodo Marmarosa Trio - Complete Studio Recordings (1946-1962) {2CD Lone Hill Jazz LHJ10119 rel 2004}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 624 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 341 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 262 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1946-1962, 2004 Lone Hill Jazz | LHJ10119
Jazz / Bop / Piano

Even if comparisons with Lennie Tristano, Al Haig and Bud Powell are inevitable, Dodo Marmarosa's music has a surrealistic imprint essentially unlike that of any other pianist in or out of bop. In honor of this cardinal truth, the Lone Hill Jazz label has come forward with the Complete Studio Recordings of the Dodo Marmarosa Trio (including alternate takes), bringing together three different West Coast sessions from 1946 and 1947, four selections waxed in his home town of Pittsburgh in 1950, and an entire second disc's worth of mature Marmarosa material recorded in Chicago in 1961 and 1962.

This reissue of Oscar Peterson's live Toronto recording in the Desert Island Discs series at Verve brings to light the question that jazz audiences were debating at the time. With Peterson's legerdemain rhythmic possibilities, his knotting, shimmering waves of notes, his insanely huge harmonic structures, and his dense clusters played in every solo, half the jazz populace wondered if all the swinging noodling might be a skillful medicine show while the other half considered it genius. No matter. One thing that everyone agreed on: No matter how busy his busy got - and this album illustrates the rule since it's in a live setting - Peterson always, always swung, particularly with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass. The set opens with "Sweet Georgia Brown" and it's all bets off as to what Peterson will do next…

This is a fairly typical date from the Oscar Peterson Trio (which features the pianist-leader, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen). Many of the songs on this LP are associated with other musicians (such as "Waltz for Debbie," "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" and "Six and Four") but Peterson has little difficulty swinging them in his usual fashion; a highlight is the original version of Ray Brown's "Gravy Waltz."
On the other hand - bonus album, "West Side Story". boasting the same formation, showcases the trio giving their version of the celebrated Leonard Bernstein score.

The group that Oscar Peterson led between 1953-58 with guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown was one of the great piano trios of all time. It was never so much a matter of Peterson having two other musicians accompany him as it was that they could meet the pianist as near-equals and consistently inspire him. And unlike most trios, Peterson's had many arranged sections that constantly needed rehearsals and were often quite dazzling. This live double-CD from 1955 has previously unreleased (and unknown) performances of 31 songs (28 standards plus three of Peterson's originals) that were released for the first time in 1994. The pianist is often in typically miraculous form, Ellis (whether playing harmonies, offering short solos or getting his guitar to sound like a conga by tapping it percussively) proves to be a perfect partner, and Brown's subtle but sometimes telepathic contributions should not be overlooked either.

The Oscar Peterson Trio - At The Stratford Shakespearean Festival (2017) {JazzTwin 51013 rec 1956 - bonus track}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 390 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 187 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 185 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1956, 2017 Verve / JazzTwin Records | 51013
Jazz / Bop / Mainstream Jazz / Piano

This release presents the celebrated LP At the Stratford Shakespearean Festival (Verve MGV-8024) in its entirety. The album showcases Oscar Peterson’s drum-less trio featuring Herb Ellis and Ray Brown live in Ontario, Canada. According to Peterson himself, the group was seldom captured so well on records. A rarely heard reading of “Will You Still Be Mine?” taped by the same trio a couple of months later has been added here as a bonus.