Customer Reviews

Sound of the Trio: Vme Series

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4 star:		(1)
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Definately the best live recording of a jazz trio. The best verion/performance/recording of "On Green Dolphin Street." Thigpen's drumming is superb, Ray Brown's Bass is equal. But the SOUND QUALITY of this CD is unparrelled.

I was listening to Oscar on an interview. He said that this was one of his favorite albums. It's great music. They seem to be serving dinner in the restaurant as there is some clanking of dishes, and be prepared to hear some humming - Oscar sang along as he created his masterpieces.

This is a one of a kind for OP in that it captures the tight work of one of the great groups with very well engineered sound.
Musically, while each member plays well as you would expect, what impresses me most is the way they work a particular dynamic. There is a similar but less well recorded performance on the Stratford Shakespearean Festival disc, also on Verve with the Herb Ellis trio of the 50s.

"The Sound of the Trio" is one of four Verve albums compiled from live recordings made at the London House, a supper club that once occupied the corner of Wacker Boulevard and Michigan Avenue in Chicago. The complete tapes were issued by Verve as "The London House Sessions" in the late nineties (a set which is now difficult and, usually, expensive to acquire) and "The Trio: Live From Chicago" has also been released on CD in the Master Edition series.

The Peterson/Brown/Thigpen trio generated a dynamic in their live recordings which was rarely captured in the studio. The group's ability to gradually ratchet up the excitement on a tune is demonstrated on the opening track, Oscar Pettiford's "Tricrotism", which builds into a juggernaut of swing.

The recorded sound is actually very good, the only downsides being a piano that is struggling to retain its tuning, and an occasionally intrusive amount of background noise. As Peterson recalls in the liner notes, as well as "European trappings, chandeliers and the like" the London House also "had one of the noisiest audiences in the world".

Don't let this deter you, though. "The Sound of the Trio" has a great sense of atmosphere. Listening to this disc, you feel like you're sitting at a linen-covered table right next to the bandstand. Now, where's that waiter with my shrimp cocktail?

Qualify of the CD was very good and arrived when promised. This is a great Peterson album, particularly the classical start and finish to Green Dolphin Street.

I thoroughly enjoy Oscar Peterson's playing in certain contexts. He is a very respectful collaborator -- backing up Fred Astaire on the Astaire Story album, or sharing the stage with Milt Jackson on the Very Tall sessions. Oscar is more enjoyable to these ears when he holds back a bit.

Here, in a live trio club date, Oscar is unbound, unleashed. What that means most of the time is unending flurries of notes. They are very well-played notes, mind you, but to me it gets a little tedious compared to a soloist like Ahmad Jamal or Miles on Blue In Green, where space is given its due, and improvised lines are heard without as much baroque ornamentation. This is a matter of taste, and you may prefer the excitement of Oscar's full-on "never let 'em catch their breath" approach in this classic trio record. I only want to describe the sound of this album to help customers know what they're getting. This is not an album like Night Train. Oscar stretches out, plays with greater intensity and less melodicism, and the songs are longer, so this can lead to a bit more rambling in the solos.

To be fair, Oscar does slow down on more melodic pieces like Jim. And I like a lot of his inventions in On Green Dolphin Street, though his opening and closing on that tune is grandiose -- it's a bit much. Billy Boy closes out the album, short and sweet.

It's likely that some jazz fans are able to decipher Oscar's quick runs better than I, and will derive much more enjoyment. In building my collection, I am going to try to focus on the albums where Oscar's lyricism is uppermost. Therefore, I will not be buying this. Again, it may be perfect for you.

I can't explain it--this recording literaly makes me salivate, as if I were thinking of a sumptuous meal or a great red wine. I also bounce my feet, bob and swing my head, smile stupidly, and dream of swinging like this trio. 'nuff said.

It is one of the first jazz albums I ever bought and I never stopped loving it.His sound is so natural and swinging that it never stopped amasing me.I bought it again in 1978 at the North Sea Jazz Festival because the first was too old. I am excited to be able to buy it al last on CD. one of his very best albums