We Get Requests [Original recording remastered]

Oscar Peterson, Oscar Peterson & Stephane Grappelli | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 29, 1997)
• Original Release Date: 1964
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B0000047D5
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,725 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This 1964 studio session features the Peterson trio with bassist Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, a group that had been together for five years by then and performed like a well-oiled machine. The repertoire is mostly pop songs of the day, including bossa nova tunes and film themes, and the treatments are fairly brief, with emphasis placed squarely on the melodies. Even in their lightest moments, though, the group demonstrates some of the qualities that made it among the most influential piano trios in jazz, a group that could generate tremendous rhythmic energy and a sense of developing musical detail. For all his legendary force, Peterson possesses a subtle rhythmic sense, and here he infuses even "People" with an undercurrent of swing. This is undemanding, tuneful music best suited for casual listening, but it still sparkles with the trio's customary élan. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great example of the Trio's superlative playing., July 10, 2001

By 

philxan (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Get Requests (Audio CD)

This is one of my most favourite albums. The liner notes, both the original unacredited notes but presumbly by producer Jim Davis, and Phil Bailey's reissue notes, are much what you would expect on an album from one of jazz's greatest trios. Pure extascy. Both speak of Peterson's incredible virtuosity, and the seamlessness of the trio. Both compliments are certainly deserved, but the excesive laudation does get in the way of appreciatinq a truly fantastic recording. That's not to say that the music is not well above par. It certainly is. They even brinq a new face to the Girl From Ipanema. The solo voices are also very well developed. In each tune the soloist actually has something to say - whether it be Peterson, Brown or Thigpen - and the remaining players don't hold him back or try to dominate. Its not an understatement to describe "We Get Requests" as exhibiting the famed synchronicity of the Oscar Peterson Trio's live performances.

pk.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The trio swings!, July 20, 2000

By 

Jeffrey Harris (South San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: We Get Requests (Audio CD)

Oscar Peterson isn't called the swinger for nothing, as this classic album demonstrates. Covering current pop hits of the day like "The Days Of Wine And Roses", "People", and especially their version of "Corcovado" which opens the album, the trio casts them in a new light with uniquely different arrangements that showcase their tight rhythmic playing. Great liner notes in the booklet and an excellent 20-bit remaster make this album seem new again. A great album and one of the best in the Verve catalog, period.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Polite Peterson; Excellent Sound, June 16, 2007

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: We Get Requests (Audio CD)

This 1964 session tends toward the "commercial" Oscar Peterson. Ten tunes, only one clocking in at over 5 minutes (5:11), with Oscar playing with restraint, finesse and polish, backed by his best rhythm section. The "concept" was to have the great pianist perform tunes not normally in his repertory but frequently requested by fans. At the same time, none of the last three tunes is familiar, though the closer features full-blown hyper-virtuosic Oscar at full speed.

The audio on the 1997 CD reissue is as good as it gets. Ray Brown's bass retains all of its natural, personal character; Thigpen's drums are crisp and present; Oscar's piano is bright and perfectly mixed--and it's a spacious sound that you would never hear on a Van Gelder recording.

If you really want to hear Oscar smokin' on every tune, playing with his "serious" game face on and from this same period, go to the recordings from the "Exclusively for My Friends" series, made at the Black Forest estate of Hans Brunner Schwer for his German MPS label (now out on Verve). Start with "The Lost Tapes" (Vol. 1) or "In a Mellotone" (Vol. V), but fasten your seat belt first. No mellow Oscar on this one--just a volcanic force unleashed. If that sounds like too much to start with, get your feet wet with "We Get Requests."