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Perfect Peterson: The Best of the Pablo and Telarc Recordings

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Oscar Peterson

 
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Perfect Peterson: The Best of the Pablo and Telarc Recordings
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A jazz great's finest moments.

  • We Say...

    Review by Britt Robson

    The title is hogwash: Oscar Peterson’s prodigious, fairly consistent talent and prolific output (with dozens of discs on Pablo and Telarc alone) make compiling a "Best of" as random as a game of darts. But for those interested in investigating this deservedly heralded pianist, who died in December 2007 at the age of 82, this is a Near-Perfect Peterson Primer.

    There are songs from Peterson’s classic trio — including “Tenderly” and “How High the Moon” from the 1950s and Fats Waller’s “Honeysuckle Rose,” recorded in 1979 — that demonstrate how the woody, earthen-toned grounding of bassist Ray Brown and the nimble phrasing of guitarist Herb Ellis served as the ideal sideboards for Peterson’s ivory express. There are guest stars galore, from Stephane Grappelli to Dizzy Gillespie to Milt Jackson to Roy Hargrove. There are universal standards such as “Summertime” and “In A Mellow Tone,” novelties like “Morning In Newfoundland” (Peterson was Canadian) with symphonic strings attached and relatively obscure Peterson favorites like “Reunion Blues” and “Nigerian Marketplace.”

    Through it all there is the protean power of Peterson, one of the rare pianists with sufficient jaw-dropping technique to be considered a disciple of Art Tatum and still forge his own identity. Check out “On the Trail,” where Peterson unleashes a facile, seemingly undifferentiated blizzard of notes that validates his critics’ contention that his snazzy showmanship lacked substance or sophistication, only to rebut that notion with a glorious second solo later in the tune. Or consider how much the sheer force of Peterson’s playing was a virtue in its own right: How many other pianists could “coast” in third gear with the intrepid zeal Peterson brings to “If I Were a Bell,” making subsequent solos, even by a luminary such as Gillespie, pale by comparison? The precipitous drop in energy when Peterson concludes his solo on “Kelly’s Blues” dramatizes how high he has effortlessly taken the listener. Then there is his amazing pyrotechnics on “Satin Doll,” recorded in 1999, six years after a stroke temporarily deprived Peterson full use of his left arm and hand. Perfect Peterson deftly captures large chunks in the career of this jazz comet, who cavorted across the cosmos for a good long time.

  • They Say...

    Review by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

    While it's true that Oscar Peterson compilations appeared with regularity form the early '60s on, only a few of them -- as with most recording artists -- have any real merit. This two-disc collection from the Concord Music Group's Telarc label, is one of them. Appearing less than a year before his death, this compilation concentrates on recordings issued from the '50s through the middle of the '80s on Dizzy Gillespie's Pablo label, and those made for Telarc between 1990 and 2000. Many live dates are included here from both labels, including "Tenderly" with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown at the J.A.T.P. concerts in Japan; the trio dates at Zardi's in 1955 ("How High the Moon"), in Copenhagen with Joe Pass, Stéphane Grappelli, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen in 1979, and Mickey Roker in 1979 ("Nuages"). There's the beautiful duet reading of Juan Tizol's "Caravan" with Gillespie in the studio in 1974, as well as the title track form the Nigerian Marketplace album but recorded live in Japan in 1982. The biggest complaint is that there isn't anything here actually from that classic album on this set. Disc two begins with the great reunion of the trio at the Blue Note in 1990, from which the historic set was taken with Bobby Durham on drums: "Honeysuckle Rose," "Kelly's Blues," and "Wheatland" all come from those sets. Other live cuts include "Reunion Blues," with Benny Green, Ellis, Brown, and drummer Lewis Nash from the Tribute to Oscar Peterson concert in New York, and "Night Time" from Oscar in Paris. There are a few studio numbers here as well including "In a Mellow Tone," with Brown, Nash, Benny Carter, Clark Terry, and Lorne Lofsky, and the stellar version of "Tin Tin Deo," with Roy Hargrove, Ørsted-Pedersen, and Ralph Moore was recorded in Canada for release on mid-'90s albums like The More I See You and Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite. With the exception of the aforementioned minor complaint, this is a fine overview of some of Peterson's most productive years. Included is an excellent liner essay by writer James Isaacs.

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