Milestones

Was he an addict or a lab rat?

Yep, a famous tune for sure. I'm sure it's been covered extensively.

Track 14 also has me thinking Lew Tabackin...I guess he's in my brain today.

Track 1 is so familiar. It has that Horace Silver quality—something in that vein. I know this tune, though not this version. Nice trumpet solo. Track 2 is “Song for My Father,” one of the great tunes by Silver—and for Blue Note in general. The pianist has some Silver qualities, but other elements too—so I don’t think it’s him. The tenor is no Joe Henderson, but does his stuff well enough. Track 3 is big band style Silver. I thought maybe Chuck Israels, but his version of “Sister Sadie” is much longer. Despite the affinities to big band music, Silver sounds best to me in relatively small to mid-size bands. Track 4: I don’t know who this is, but certainly the alto imitates Hodges. Overall this is very Ellingtonian. This could be from the last decade. Track 5: Another song in the more basic Ellington mode. No idea who it is. Track 6: Nice swinging track and made memorable by the tuba. Is it Bob Stewart? Just a guess, since I doubt I can name another tuba player. Track 7: Nice relaxed saxophone duel, if a duel can be “relaxed.” Track 10: I’m not so sure about “Sippin.” The first solo sounded like Lew Tabackin.

A Cleveland guy, at that. Hale Smith and Randy Weston both scatted on one piece.

Thanks. I've heard the name Hale Smith, but can't recall what he is known for. I sure wouldn't mind this Montreux set being released on CD or even digital download. I don't think it has been.

I've discovered several videos on YouTube of Randy Weston playing at Montreux in 1985. It's called "orchestra," but looks to be eight or nine players. One of these is an old guy with a stogie who sometimes takes over the piano chair. This is before Weston's renaissance, which came about five years later. I'm not sure about these players, and the stogie guy is the biggest mystery of all. I appreciate any attempts to identify. .....Ah, I think I have most: Sahib Shihab (sp?), Benny Bailey, George Lewis, Talib Kibwe, Benny Powell (the last two at the start of their long runs with Weston). The cigar guy (still don't know him) is mainly the conductor.

Man, what hackneyed and over-driven playing on the duet album with Ella (1975)....not!

Now listening to Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

If you prefer stuff that makes money, you wouldn't be on a jazz forum.

Sad to say, I did not know the name. However, I was just listening to Ella's Christmas record and wondering who was producing the fine work on vibes.

I'm sure Downbeat has always had a decent number of good reviewers. But every now and then I see an original one that shows just how far off the mark they could be. The most famous must be zero stars for Free Jazz.

That's going way back. I don't think I've heard anything by Oscar from those years.

What's on the Mosaic set? I'm not familiar with that.

Have we not put it to bed?

Yes, time to put that other issue to bed. I was trying to steer the thread into Oscar plays "sounds of the season."

I like a fair amount of the Pablo records, especially Live! from 1986. He often had Joe Pass in the band and those two could really rip it up--and often did. But this had the interesting "Bach Suite" (3 parts) with a mellow Andante--and the album closes with the beautiful ballad "If You Only Knew."

The Christmas album is rather good, although there is a needless addition of "strings" on several cuts. Still, this is tasteful and enjoyable music--one of the better Christmas albums from a jazz musician.

What do you think of pianists in the avant garde area--most particularly Cecil Taylor?

At this point, I'm asking for recommendations. Other than the Stratford Festival record, what are the best albums representing the Peterson/Ellis/Brown trio?

It looks like we are still having trouble getting volunteers for the early months of next years. I would be happy to do February or March.

That may be largely true, but then there's the whole issue of over-simplifying--the notion that OP is overwrought in EVERYTHING he plays.

I don't think anything has been proven other than the subjectivity of listeners and the fact that parallels don't stand up. For example, many find Peterson's playing is overwrought. But the parallel might be drawn that many jazz greats are just as overwrought: Bird, Coltrane, Blakey, and many more. But they bring on the virtuosity for other reasons and to other effects. I didn't know that Evans was quite disgusted by Peterson. Yet there are some who would argue that Evans worked within too narrow an emotional range; I might very well say that myself.

For what it's worth, Peterson even said he was "scared" of Tatum. There is a lot of Peterson I enjoy on Pablo. The label really specialized in throwback jazz, basically in the swing mode. Of course, the artists were mainly the original guys, those who had been doing it for decades--Basie, Zoot Sims, Dizzy, Ray Brown, Roy Eldridge, and of course Oscar. There was no innovation on Pablo. But sometimes you just want joyful and swinging jazz.

I find him to be a fine player, often an excellent player. I will never understand the blanket categorization of him as overplaying and lacking subtlety. He was occasionally a good composer, as we see in "Wheatland," "Hymn to Freedom," and others. This is subtle creative, beautiful stuff. He's just a hackneyed, full-bore player? Have you not listened to "If You Only Knew" or "A Child is Born"? Sure, his nature was conservative and he did not create great albums like Miles and Coltrane. But how many can do that? I have long considered Oscar Peterson a jazz great.