A Craving for Oscar Peterson

Yesterday, for some reason, I had a yen for Oscar Peterson. I'm not sure what triggered it. Perhaps it was the desire to create a sound wall as I wrote one of my “House Call" columns. Or maybe it came as I thought about Peterson's Motions and Emotions album from 1969. At any rate, I hopped on YouTube and discovered 10 relatively new videos of Peterson performances to share with you.

Here are the clips:

Here's Peterson with Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums in London in 1964 playing Yours Is My Heart Alone...



Here's the Oscar Peterson Trio playing You Look Good to Me...



Here's Oscar Peterson with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen on the BBC's Jazz 625, colorized, in 1964...



Here's 29 minutes of the Oscar Peterson Trio in the Netherlands in 1965...



Here's an astonishing solo piano performance of I Can't Get Started in Tokyo in 1987...



Here's the Oscar Peterson Trio playing Moon River in London in 1976...



Here's Oscar Peterson, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass and Louie Bellson on drums playing You Stepped Out of a Dream...



Here's Oscar Peterson and Count Basie with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass and Martin Drew on drums playing Jumpin' at the Woodside in London in the ealry 1970s...



Here's nearly 42 minutes of Peterson with Steve Wallace on bass and Bobby Durham on drums at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1989...



And here's Oscar at top speed on Mack the Knife in 1974...