Oscar Peterson Trio + One - Plak

ENGLISH

When the contract with Verve was terminated at the beginning of 1964, Mercury’s producers and owners endeavoured to find new openings for Oscar Peterson who was committed to the piano trio. Among them was an LP of songs with Nat King Cole numbers scored for big band, the only long composition by Peterson - a reminiscence of his Canadian native country, a Latin album, and the present meet-up with Clark Terry. Filled with mutual respect, with a complete understanding of one another’s humour, and deliciously swinging without being obtrusive, these ten numbers will get your feet tapping and your fingers snapping - although exactly 40 years have passed by.<br /><br /> Especially the blues pieces such as "Squeaky’s Blues", "Blues For Smedley" and "Incoherent Blues" are little oases of relaxed swing, freed as they are of the composers’ or producers’ preconceived ideas. In the liner notes, Oscar Peterson mentions how proud he is of the introduction to "They Didn’t Believe". And he deserves to be, but not just of this! A further reason for the relaxed atmosphere may well be that Oscar Peterson was permitted to play his own piano for the first time at a recording session. Surely he makes special mention of this because at the highly praised live sessions for Verve in London House in 1962 he had to perform on an out-of-tune piano which impaired the recordings. Looking back, one shouldn’t forget either that Oscar Peterson’s ears had already been spoiled by the Steinway and Boesendorfer pianos of SABA producer Brunner-Schwer and his excellent recording technique in his Black Forest studio.<br /><br /> Mercury’s equally good recording technique, which is just as legendary today and eclipsed many other companies in 1964, combined with the pure vinyl used for the present pressing guarantees excellent sound. No need to worry about finger snapping - that will start up spontaneously.<br /><br /> Recording: August 1964 in New York City<br /><br /> Production: Norman Granz