Tony Pusey Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 Can no longer ignore the VME (Verve Mercenary Expropriation?) Oscar Peterson albums at my local retailer. I have heard nothing by him, and although I have heard some eulogies, (from piano players) I have only picked up negative impressions when his name turns up. What do board members think of him? Positive recomendations? cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris olivarez Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 Man that is one large discography. Oscar generated consistenly good quality over the years. A large part of his work was recorded in the trio format. Instead of the usual piano,bass,drums format, Oscar was just as likely to go piano,bass,guitar.Look for some of the sides he recorded with Herb Ellis or Barney Kessel and he also worked with Joe Pass. Oscar often colloabarated with different artists like Ella Fitzgerald. I have one that he recorded with Stephane Grappelli that I enjoy quite a bit. I personally don't have that many Oscar Peterson titles but the ones that I do have I enjoy quite a bit-Live At Zardis,Live At Skol,Emotion,Night Train,Night Child. The BMG music club has a collection of his work on Pablo that I hope to add sometime soon. Warning:being an Oscar Peterson completist is not for the faint of heart. Oscar has been prolific through the years. You might want to shy away from his later Telarc work. Oscar's chops have fallen off and he has suffered a stroke in recent years.Nevertheless Oscar,at least IMO is a quality artist.Hopefully other board members will offer further suggestions. I hope that helps some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Moments Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 Satch and Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neveronfriday Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 I'm a BIG OP fan, and here are some recommendations: "The London House Sessions", a 5-disc set reissued by Verve (horrible typography) and often available on eBay at around $30-$40 is an absolute must! It collects all the live recordings (July 11 - August 6, 1961) which, incidentally, are floating around as single trio recordings all over the place, and shows the OP trio (with Ed Thigpen instead of Herb Ellis) in best form! Stunning material. I think the sound is excellent although, of course, audience noise etc. are a given at such a date. If you want to get a good overview of what OP has done, you might want to check out Pablo's 3-disc "Oscar Peterson - 75th Birthday Celebration", an excellent collection of discs spanning his career until 1981 (Oscar and Friends, mostly 70s and 80s recordings, OP live in concert, 1955 - 80, and OP at Montreux, 1975-81). It's a comparatively cheap set, so you can't go wrong here. "Exculsively for my Friends" is a 5-dsic set (originally 4 discs with a "Lost Tapes" one released later) collection of house concerts recorded in Germany in someone's living room. Excellent sound, now also available on SACD. Many OP fans consider this set to be his best one. A later highlight are the various Telarc releases of OP's concerts at the Blue Note, March 1990. I love those! It was a reunion concert run of sorts with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass, before OP's stroke in the spring of '93. I'm more of a fan of the OP trio with drums, especially Ed Thigpen, and just about every release is a winner (meaning, I haven't yet heard one that isn't). There are too many good ones to mention. And, I have to disagree with statements above, that after his stroke, Peterson's "chops have fallen off." In my eyes, that's simply not true: OP bounced back in an unbelievable way and stunned not only his fans (read some of the reviews for, f.ex., "A Summer Night in Munich" (Telarc 1999, recorded July 1998)) with fantastic playing. If at all, OP had to move a bit away from the display of (too many) technical flourishes towards even more melodic playing. The latter CD is one of my favourites! Much has been written about OPs recordings with Herb Ellis, and they are all excellent. It's really only a matter of taste if you choose that trio over the one with Thigpen, or select the best of both worlds with Ellis AND Thigpen. If you have any questions regarding a single CD you find somewhere, PM me. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vibes Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 OP is definitely worth checking out. The guy could swing, and was a great accompanist too. My main experience with his work is from the VME series, and there is a lot of excellent CD's worth checking out in that series. Some of my favorites: Very Tall (with Milt Jackson) Night Train The Trio (live date) We Get Requests I'm much more of a fan of this trio than of his previous, drummer-less trio, but I know many people are fans of that trio (with Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar) too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neveronfriday Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 Asfar as I can remember off the top of my head, the above mentioned "London House Sessions" have previously been released as (meaning, the releases below contained all or some of that material ... I can't check right now): Oscar Peterson: Put on a Happy Face Oscar Peterson: The Trio - Live from Chicago Oscar Peterson: The Sound of the Trio Oscar Peterson: Something Warm Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjobbe Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 (edited) as an Oscar fan (and Piano trio recordings in general) here some thoughts additionally to deus posting (and more or less agreeing totally to his statement) - recommended in terms of uniqueness of quality are the duetts recorded with Pablo (The Basie one is one of my all time favourites). They show a somewhat different and less dominating Oscar Peterson. - from the MPS collection you can more or less buy most records and I see this phase as the most creative one - the verves are not my all time favorites (allthough you might find some of the above MPS released outside Europe with the Verve sticker on them) - the Telarcs are more mixed (so you need to look a bit more carefully to their musical quality) but some great live performances recorded. All in all, there is so much out there from various periods and I have only one (Skol) that I some what dislike. Else both sonically and musically his recordings are all high class standard. If you want to start go with the 75th Birthday celebration and branch from there into the various themes. Cheers, Tjobbe Edited April 3, 2004 by tjobbe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 Oscar Peterson is a favorite here. The man could swing like hell with his trio or behind musicians and singers as diverse and as great as Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, Stan Getz and literally hundreds of others. One OP trio I loved was the one with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown. If you want to hear the quintessence of Peterson's ability to swing check the 'OP at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival' or 'The OP Trio at Concertgebouw' (recorded in Chicago, not Amsterdam) albums on Verve. Or any of the MPS albums he recorded in the '60s (Tjobbe already mentioned those). Not sure it is available but there is an excellent 6CD box 'Oscar Peterson in Concert' that came out in the '90s on the RTE label. It had excellent sound from various concerts played in Paris between 1957 and 1969. A little know box with lots of splendid moments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sal Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 My opinion is a bit different. I've always found him to be somewhat of a boring player. Yeah, his technique is good and he is versatile. But I've never found much excitement in his playing. Sounds kind of run-of-the-mill to me. Just my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 deus62, Any recommendations as to where to begin with the six upcoming SACD releases that comprise the "Exclusively For My Friends" set? I plan to purchase a couple of these shortly after they released, but six would be too much for me initially. The releases are: Vol. 1, Action Vol. 2, Girl Talk Vol. 3, The Way I Really Play Vol. 4, My Favorite Instrument Vol. 5, Mellow Mood Vol. 6, Travelin' On Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 I respect him a LOT more than I like him, and it's not a "chops" issue w/me (faulting anybody for having "too much" technique is stupid, but having reservations about what they use it for isn't), but rather an emotional one. I think he's prone to "style over substance" a lot of times, and his pallate is often flourescent in color to my ears. But "a lot" and "often" is not "always", not by any means. Different strokes, pick and choose, etc. That's what I think of him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garthsj Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 deus62, Any recommendations as to where to begin with the six upcoming SACD releases that comprise the "Exclusively For My Friends" set? I plan to purchase a couple of these shortly after they released, but six would be too much for me initially. The releases are: Vol. 1, Action Vol. 2, Girl Talk Vol. 3, The Way I Really Play Vol. 4, My Favorite Instrument Vol. 5, Mellow Mood Vol. 6, Travelin' On Thanks! I apologize for a scanty answer, but about 2/3 of my CDs are still in boxes while I have new shelves built, and I can't lay my hands on this box set (the original release). My recomendation is to get the CD with the cut "Sax No End" on it. This particular cut, a tune written by Francie Boland, will refute ANY criticism of Oscar Peterson as being "run of the mill" ... and will, at the same time, convince you that Peterson is genuinely one of the all-time jazz giants. The London House Sessions have been neatly reissued and packaged in a 5-CD box from Verve. (Is this still available?). Try to get a used copy if necessary. (And a magnifying glass at the same time to read the typography in the booklet ... Verve sometimes becomes too creative by half ... I have a graphic designer friend who thinks that it is "fantastic!") Finally, as a teenager, Oscar's version of "Tenderly" from a 1952 JATP Concert was like a bible of jazz to me ... I still play it quite often. Such memories.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neveronfriday Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 (edited) My recomendation is to get the CD with the cut "Sax No End" on it. This particular cut, a tune written by Francie Boland, will refute ANY criticism of Oscar Peterson as being "run of the mill" ... and will, at the same time, convince you that Peterson is genuinely one of the all-time jazz giants. That's on the above-mentioned "Exclusively for My Friends" box set, Vol. 3 (track 8; Peterson on piano, Sam Jones on bass and Bobby Durham on drums; recorded in 1968). deus62, Any recommendations as to where to begin with the six upcoming SACD releases that comprise the "Exclusively For My Friends" set? I plan to purchase a couple of these shortly after they released, but six would be too much for me initially. The releases are: Vol. 1, Action Vol. 2, Girl Talk Vol. 3, The Way I Really Play Vol. 4, My Favorite Instrument Vol. 5, Mellow Mood Vol. 6, Travelin' On Thanks! Just start with Vol. 1. I would buy my way through this set chronologically, the way it was released originally. Cheers! Edited April 3, 2004 by deus62 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saxophone__Vagina Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 A later highlight are the various Telarc releases of OP's concerts at the Blue Note, March 1990. I love those! It was a reunion concert run of sorts with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass, before OP's stroke in the spring of '93. Yea those concerts were great, highly recomended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Hawkins Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 I used to like him when I was first getting into jazz, then began to steer away from him - I thought at the time that it was all a bit glossy and a bit facile. But recently, I've really begun to enjoy him again, and think that there is definite substance behind a lot of it. I would second the recommendation for the 'Stratford...' CD. Sure, it has its moments of 'death by two-handed tremolo', but I still really love it, and it swings like crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randissimo Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 Can no longer ignore the VME (Verve Mercenary Expropriation?) Oscar Peterson albums at my local retailer. I have heard nothing by him, and although I have heard some eulogies, (from piano players) I have only picked up negative impressions when his name turns up. What do board members think of him? Positive recomendations? cheers. My favorite Oscar Peterson album is the Verve recording "The Trio, Live In Chicago".. It was recorded in 1961 at the legendary "London House". The trio was Oscar, Ray Brown & drummer Ed Thigpen. Every track on this record swings profusely! I also just finished OP's autobiography.. An interesting read... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John L Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 No offense to OP fans but my advice is... IGNORE HIM. Or, rather, since you CAN'T, realize that you can get all the OP you need (& then some) on Ben Webster, Benny Carter & many other Norman Granz produced records of the '50s. Maybe if you dig OP's ** bands ** ?? But I don't. & if, say, Ahmad Jamal's trio records w/Israel Crosby & Vernell Fournier were more easily available... My OPinion: the guy's a footnote, albeit a prolific & inescable one. There are, at least, 143 jazz pianists I'd rather hear first. (Art Tatum being one of 'em & I'm not a HUGE Tatum fan.) Yrs in Dodo Marmarosa, clem I enjoy Oscar Peterson in small doses, although I'm not a big fan for similar reasons to those given by some others here. I will say to this comment that I generally like Oscar Peterson's Trio with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen much more than his playing behind horn players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted April 3, 2004 Report Share Posted April 3, 2004 I too like OP (albiet in small doses). I think I take him for granted. My main OP listening is the LONDON HOUSE and the EXCLUSIVELY FOR ME FRIENDS sets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Pusey Posted April 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2004 Thanks for all of these initial replies I will reread them a bit later and sift out what I can use, thanks to one and all! A consensus seems to be thatthe MPS reissues represent one of the high water marks of his playing, are these SACD reissues hybrid? Can I play them?(Deus, I will be in touch) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted April 4, 2004 Report Share Posted April 4, 2004 Warning:being an Oscar Peterson completist is not for the faint of heart. Or those not independently wealthy, or those with any sanity remaining. Wow. Just thinking of being an "Oscar Peterson Completist" makes me quake with fear. Let's see; if I give up food, the wife, the cats, any social life whatsoever...nope; still couldn't afford it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAL Posted April 4, 2004 Report Share Posted April 4, 2004 I've never been partial in favour of or against Oscar Peterson. He's one of the most technically skilled jazz pianists I've heard though. Some fav. albums: - Complete Young Oscar Peterson - Trio Plus One (this is the one with Clark Terry's 'Mumbles' vocals) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John L Posted April 4, 2004 Report Share Posted April 4, 2004 Warning:being an Oscar Peterson completist is not for the faint of heart. Or those not independently wealthy, or those with any sanity remaining. Wow. Just thinking of being an "Oscar Peterson Completist" makes me quake with fear. Let's see; if I give up food, the wife, the cats, any social life whatsoever...nope; still couldn't afford it! "The cats?" There is at least one good reason to become an OP completist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 You know, I knew I shouldn't have come back to this thread... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free For All Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 EXCLUSIVELY FOR ME FRIENDS Is it already pirate-speaking time again, maties? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted April 5, 2004 Report Share Posted April 5, 2004 EXCLUSIVELY FOR ME FRIENDS Is it already pirate-speaking time again, maties? sorry, carry on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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