Oscar Peterson

Born 25th August, 1925 in Montreal, Canada, Oscar Emmanuel Peterson grew up in Little Burgundy, a predominantly black neighbourhood in greater Quebec. He took up piano and trumpet at age five, quickly becoming adept on both instruments. At seven he was diagnosed with tuberculosis which prevented him from playing the trumpet, he thus concentrated on the piano during this time, practising four to six hours a day. Studying under the Hungarian-born player Paul de Marky - himself a student of virtuoso Istvan Thoman - the young Oscar began learning classical piano but later switched to jazz styles, most notably 'boogie-woogie'. By 1961, with the piano-bass-drums line up now firmly established, the OPT performed a week's residency at The London House, a renowned jazz spot in Chicago. These performances were among the finest the new line-up ever gave, and were released on Verve as four separate albums; The Trio, Something Warm, The Sound Of The Trio and Put On A Happy Face, in '61 and early '62. The following year, Peterson's most commercially successful record Night Train (Verve, 1963), was released, another Trio masterpiece that due to its shorter track times, received considerable radio play.

Born 25th August, 1925 in Montreal, Canada, Oscar Emmanuel Peterson grew up in Little Burgundy, a predominantly black neighbourhood in greater Quebec. He took up piano and trumpet at age five, quickly becoming adept on both instruments. At seven he was diagnosed with tuberculosis which prevented him from playing the trumpet, he thus concentrated on the piano during this time, practising four to six hours a day. Studying under the Hungarian-born player Paul de Marky - himself a student of virtuoso Istvan Thoman - the young Oscar began learning classical piano but later switched to jazz styles, most notably 'boogie-woogie'. By 1961, with the piano-bass-drums line up now firmly established, the OPT performed a week's residency at The London House, a renowned jazz spot in Chicago. These performances were among the finest the new line-up ever gave, and were released on Verve as four separate albums; The Trio, Something Warm, The Sound Of The Trio and Put On A Happy Face, in '61 and early '62. The following year, Peterson's most commercially successful record Night Train (Verve, 1963), was released, another Trio masterpiece that due to its shorter track times, received considerable radio play.

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.

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (15 August 1925-23 December 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist, vocalist and composer. Originally from Montreal, Quebec, Peterson is said to be one of the most technically brilliant and melodically inventive jazz pianists of all time, with a career that lasted more than 65 years. Some of his musical associates have included Ray Brown, Ben Webster, Milt Jackson, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Ed Thigpen, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Louis Armstrong, Stéphane Grappelli, Ella Fitzgerald, Clark Terry, Joe Pass, Count Basie, and Stan Getz.

Some guest soloists get overshadowed by Oscar Peterson's technical prowess, while others meet him halfway with fireworks of their own; trumpeter Clark Terry lands in the latter camp on this fine 1964 session. With drummer Ed Thigpen and bassist Ray Brown providing solid support, the two soloists come off as intimate friends over the course of the album's ten ballad and blues numbers. And while Peterson shows myriad moods, from Ellington's impressionism on slow cuts like "They Didn't Believe Me" to fleet, single-line madness on his own "Squeaky's Blues," Terry goes in for blues and the blowzy on originals like "Mumbles" and "Incoherent Blues"; the trumpeter even airs out some of his singularly rambling and wonderful scat singing in the process…

Pianist Oscar Peterson has made a remarkable number of records through the years and his two songbook series for Verve (each recording features the songs of a different composer) were extensive, to say the least. During 1952-54 he cut ten albums (113 songs) and in 1959 he added nine more records (108 songs), in addition to his regular busy activities. Because these were essentially easy-listening sets with concise interpretations that always kept the melodies of the composers close by, they are not considered Peterson's greatest work but they are enjoyable in their own right. This particular two-CD set has some of the highlights from these marathon projects, most of which (the Gershwin songbooks excepted) had never been out on CD before. Peterson teams up with guitarist Barney Kessel and bassist Ray Brown on nine numbers from 1952, features Herb Ellis in Kessel's place on 13 other songs…

In what was a giant undertaking (even for producer Norman Granz), pianist Oscar Peterson recorded ten Songbook albums during 1952-1954 and when his trio changed, nine more in 1959. Both of his George Gershwin projects (one from 1952 and the other from 1959) have been reissued in full on this single CD. The earlier date matches the brilliant Peterson with guitarist Barney Kessel and bassist Ray Brown, while the 1959 session has Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen. The Songbook series found Peterson playing concise (around three-minute) versions of tunes, and he always kept the melody in the forefront. The results are not innovative or unique, but they are tasteful and reasonably enjoyable. Since five of the songs are played by both groups, a comparison between the two units is interesting.