Jazz Articles about Oscar Peterson

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Oscar Peterson: Exclusively For My Friends

by Bruce Lindsay
September 18, 2015

An 8-CD set of recordings from the great Oscar Peterson, beautifully recorded, sumptuously packaged and accompanied by a 60-page booklet full of informative writing: Exclusively For My Friends is a treat for ears and eyes. All of the recordings on this set were made between 1963 and 1971. The sessions took place in the home of producer and MPS Records owner Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer in Germany's Black Forest--Peterson and Brunner-Schwer were friends and the pianist often visited the label owner's ...

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Oscar Peterson, Ben Webster: During This Time

by Maurizio Zerbo
November 21, 2014

Se qualcuno vi chiede cosa è il jazz, fategli ascoltare questo magnifico set del 1972. Sensuale, vellutato ed intriso di blues, è una magistrale lezione di classe, talento, verve, souplesse esecutiva. Sottraendosi alle prevedibili gabbie della jam session, i due leader offrono controllati spunti solistici volti a condensare in goduriose chases l'essenza del jazz. Grazie all'implacabile sostegno ritmico, i solisti volano alto soprattutto negli standard ellingtoniani per costruire un percorso d'aura classicità senza tempo. A differenza di ...

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Oscar Peterson & Stephane Grappelli: Skol

by C. Michael Bailey
October 10, 2013

Oscar Peterson and Stephane Grappelli Skol OJC 1979/2013 Music impresario Norman Granz (1918-2001) was a cagey so-and-so. When he inaugurated Pablo Records in 1973, he already had a catalog of recordings and an immediate pool of exceptional performers who also happened to be under his management (often making his acquaintance through Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic program). With this combination of fortunes, Granz was able to release some 350 recordings in 15 years, before ...

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Oscar Peterson: Unmistakable

by Jack Bowers
March 1, 2012

The first thing Unmistakable on this recording is the pianist: it can only be the incomparable Oscar Peterson, who, if not the greatest jazz pianist who ever lived, is certainly among the top four or five. This scrapbook, however, is not, strictly speaking, a performance by Peterson but a “re-performance," taken from DVDs of three concerts--one from the mid-'70s, the others from the early '80s--and re-recorded using the Zenph Sound Innovations re-performance system. Peterson's original performances are electronically and digitally ...

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Tad Hershorn: Norman Granz - The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice

by Ian Patterson
November 29, 2011

Norman Granz: The Man Who Used Jazz For Justice Tad Hershorn Hardcover; 488 pages ISBN: 9780520267824 University of California Press 2011 That this is the first comprehensive biography on groundbreaking jazz impresario Norman Granz (1918-2001) says much about the man's private nature. Granz shied away from interviews and never introduced himself to audiences at the concerts he emceed. Granz emerges from Hershorn's pages as a hugely charismatic figure, ...

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Oscar Peterson: Debut: The Clef / Mercury Duo Recordings 1949-1951

by Ken Dryden
April 11, 2010

Oscar PetersonDebut: The Clef / Mercury Duo Recordings 1949-1951Verve Music Group2010

Piano giant Oscar Peterson's professional career spanned approximately 60 years and produced a prolific amount of recordings, though most of what he waxed during his first two decades was for labels launched by jazz impresario Norman Granz. But Peterson's early duo recordings have been neglected during the CD era until this comprehensive, three-CD set of his duets with Ray Brown or Major Holley ...

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Oscar Peterson: The Quintessence & Oscar Peterson and Nelson Riddle

by Graham L. Flanagan
December 12, 2009

Oscar PetersonThe QuintessenceFremeaux2009 Oscar Peterson and Nelson RiddleOscar Peterson/Nelson RiddleRecord Label #2Year This month marks the two-year anniversary of Oscar Peterson's passing. The jazz legend continued to perform live until a year before he died at 82. While music lovers may be deprived of hearing him play at clubs and concert halls, his legacy ...