Montreux '77

One of many Pablo albums taken from the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival, this outing teams together pianist Oscar Peterson, bassist Niels Pedersen and drummer Bobby Durham with tenorman Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and trumpeters Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie. The talented (and very competitive) players really dig into the opening uptempo blues (“Ali and Frazier”) and they continue cooking on “If I Were a Bell,” “Bye Bye Blues” (which has been added to the CD reissue), “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be” and “Just in Time.” As often happens in this type of situation, the musicians mutually inspire each other; this is one of Dizzy Gillespie’s better sessions of the 1970s. There are no losers during these battles. – Scott Yanow