Customer Reviews

Oscar Peterson Trio Live at the Blue Note

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playing in a setting of a relaxed "get-together" of old friends!

Be it the blues or the exquisitely beautiful ballad medley, we're hearing the best of both worlds!!.....when the Oscar Peterson Trio had a guitarist and later when it had a drummer.

The empathy and interplay by the musicians heard on this recording can only result from the years of experience of having played together.This is one of the best of Oscar's later albums! I don't think there's any doubt of that since it won two grammys in 1990, for Jazz Instrumental Soloist and for Jazz Instrumental Small Group.

This is a welcome addition to anyone's jazz collection!

This is perhaps as good an outing as any by an Oscar-led combo post-1970. A comparison of this recording with live sessions made 6-7 years later will confirm that the earlier date was one of the last times Oscar's chops were as responsive as his spirit was willing. No small amount of the session's success is due to the rock-solid percussion work of Bobby Durham, one of the few drummers capable of keeping up with Oscar and Ray. One of the highlights is the unaccompanied, pyrotechnical exchange between Peterson and Ellis on "Sweet Georgia" (Oscar wins, but Herb counterpunches with surprising virtuosity).

This CD is a fine example of the live electricity of these masters. The night at the Blue Note was the culmination of a reuniting of these masters for a 2 week tour of Japan. Listening, you feel like you're there. Oscar's technique is fantastic as ever, the ideas cascade contantly. The next night is also on CD, not a note is left out nor should be missed. The tender songs pull at your heart, the blues swing you right out of your chair.

From the opening introductions to the band its apparent you are going to have a good time listening to this great recording. This is the first CD in a set of four recordings from the Blue Note Club in early 1990 (you can also buy them as a boxed set).

The band fly into a swinging version of 'Honeysuckle Rose', and I'll be surprised if your foot stops tapping for the whole nine minutes. This tune (as well as most of the album) demonstrates Oscar Petersons 'Will to Swing' - he barely ever stops. There are a few tunes on this CD on which Peterson shows that he is blessed with beautiful touch and feel as well great technique. Perhaps this is best demonstrated on the lovely medley of 'I Remember You'/'A Child is Born'/'Tenderly'. The band finish with stonking versions of 'Sweet Georgia Brown' and 'Blues for Big Scotia'. On 'Sweet Georgia Brown' Peterson and Herb Ellis open by duelling with each other and Herb Ellis shows what a fabulous player he is, at one point making the crowd laugh out loud as he plays nothing in response to the torrent of notes that Peterson has just played. You will gather from this that the atmosphere only adds to the enjoyment you'll get from this recording. Ray Brown is naturally superb on Bass and to augment the original Trio Bobby Durham is on Drums.

These recordings are at the moment the last available before Oscar Peterson had a stroke and lost most of the use of his left hand. If there was any deteriation in his playing when this recording was made it was very slight (and if you hear 'Sweet Georgia Brown' you'll think I'm mad to suggest it), but I think there is the occasional fragility to a few of his lines that you wouldn't have heard 20 years earlier. However I have only noticed this after repeated listens and it does not detract from what is wonderfully well recorded album, and 99.5% of the time its as good as anything else you can get by Peterson or any other Jazz artist for that matter.

It's true. In a scientific study with a sample size of one, I can conclusively say that Oscar Peterson's music, with headphones speakers applied externally, an inch apart, towards the isthmus region, will successfully convert a breach baby to a vertex presentation. This is important because- for medicolegal reasons, breach babies are now delivered almost exclusively by C-section, resulting in a generation of midwives and OBs, in this country at least, who lack training in safely delivering a breach baby.

Oh sure, I thought I'd make him a genius. Started out with Bach and Mozart. But that didn't do it. Didn't do much. It was Robert Randolph and the Family Band "Live at the Wetlands" that really got him kicking. But it was live Oscar Peterson, that got him dancing, got him to take the dive transverse, and the track "Sushi" got him spelunking toward the sounds.

Even if you are not gravid, you will find this to be a great CD. I love Oscar but if you don't want to take my word on it, I'll quote Ray Charles, as seen in the piano installment of Martin Scorsese's Blues documentary: "Oscar Peterson is a m----- f------ piano player!"

Age hasn't made a dent on any of the players in this incredible recording, which includes the already famous combination of Ray Brown and Oscar Peterson. This album is about as good as it gets.

I ordered this CD but received a companion CD instead; the seller promptly sent the correct CD