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Friday Evening Jazz: Oscar Peterson (II)

Friday, December 28, 2007 | 07:00 PM

in Digital Media | Friday Night Jazz | Music

Oscar Peterson has been recording and performing for over half a century. He passed away Christmas Eve '07 at the age of 82.

He may be the single most recorded of all piano players.

Oscar bridged the swing and bop eras, rooting himself in a style that was at the same time stunningly complex yet soulfully elegant.

Nobody used more notes to swing! Oscar is sometimes dismissed because he wasn't groundbreaking in the way that many of his contemporaries were. But the range of expression he achieved on the piano along with his technical prowess is hardly rivaled in mainstream jazz.

Many consider his solo recordings of the late 60s and early 70s to be his most outstanding work, but do not overlook his trio recordings both with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen and later with Joe Pass and Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson.

The live album "The Trio" from 1973 (not to be confused with a Verve release of the same title) is a great recording of Oscar with Pass and Pederson and shows Oscar at his most virtuosic. Check out the Brown Thigpen work live here.

For a compendium of his 1960s work in both trio and solo settings, the excellent box set "Exclusively for My Friends" will keep you entertained for years.

Of course, there are the standard "songbook" albums (George Gershwin, Cole Porter, etc.) and the duets with greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie.

I am also partial to A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra.

The 1962 album "Night Train" with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen is also a favorite. It showcases Oscar at his best on both ballads and uptempo numbers and he really shows his blues chops.

Oscar Peterson will be missed . . .

Sources:

80th Birthday Tribute to Oscar Peterson http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4829211
PLAYER
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=4829211&m=4830843

Oscar Peterson's 'Jazz Odyssey'
Hear an extended version of Bob Edwards' interview with Oscar Peterson.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1170182

Oscar Peterson, 82, Jazzâs Piano Virtuoso, Dies
RICHARD SEVERO
NYT, December 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/25/arts/25peterson.html

A Jazz 'Behemoth' Moves On
NAT HENTOFF
WSJ, December 28, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119878787299653457.html

Tributes paid to Oscar Peterson
BBC, Tuesday, 25 December 2007, 08:00 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7159772.stm>