Oscar Peterson at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival
Occupation
- Bass: Ray Brown
- Guitar: Herb Ellis
- Piano: Oscar Peterson
The Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Festival Shakepearean is a jazz album by the Oscar Peterson trio with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis, that in Ontario at the Stratford Festival Shakepearean was recorded on August 8, 1956 and was released on Verve Records. The playing time of the CD was released in 1993 compared to the LP from the concert expanded to more than double with four previously unreleased recordings.
The music of the album
Besides his numerous obligations under the Jazz at the Philharmonic tours Peterson began in the early 1950s with a trio piano / guitar / bass to work, first with Barney Kessel and occasionally supplemented to a quartet with drums. The Oscar Peterson Trio with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown belonged to the few drum-less trio, in the tradition of Nat Cole Trio ( with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Johnny Miller ) or the Art Tatum trio with guitarist Tiny Grimes and bassist Slam Stewart played; James Isaacs points out in the liner notes to the popular in the 1950s by Ahmad Jamal Trio ( with Ray Crawford on guitar and Eddie Calhoun on bass ) and the trio of guitarist Tal Farlow with Eddie Costa and Vinnie Burke out. A total of five years - 1953 to 1958 - was in this occupation Peterson Trio.
The music, the trio performed at the festival consisted of popular classics from the Great American Songbook such as How High the Moon or Rodgers & Hart Falling in Love with Love, as well as jazz standards like Ellington Love You Madly, Monks 52nd Street Theme or Nuages of three years before deceased Django Reinhardt. There were also two original compositions by pianist Noreen 's Nocturne (which he had written for Noreen Nimmonds, wife of clarinetist Phil Nimmonds ) and Daisy's Dream ( named after Peterson's sister).
In the original text plate Oscar Peterson pointed out that it had gone to him in the selection of pieces and their arrangements therefore, highlight the " various instrumental combinations and the soloists in the group ." Decisive participated in the recordings in the control room John Lewis [A 1], who knew the change in the balance and the structures in Peterson's arrangements of previous sessions.
The concept for Ellis in Nuages Reinhardt's original recording was less than oriented in Benny Goodman's versions of Menories of You and Rose Room at Charlie Christian solo. In chamber music arranged for Daisy 's Dream Ray Brown played bass painted. Love You Madly is based on a dialogue between piano and bass. In the opening chorus of Noreen 's Nocturne Peterson played by the melodic independence of the three instruments; the known standard How High the Moon formed a feature for Ray Brown's solo on two choruses.
Reception Album
Richard Cook and Brian Morton recorded the album with the second highest rating. Unlike Tal Farlow and Nat Cole Peterson band had never played so wide and open. Here, however, Peterson would take back exceptional and let the music flow. The authors point to the fact that Brown and Ellis had spent the whole afternoon trying out harmonic variations that could get you in the evening for use.
The critic Alan Zeffert designated in Jazz on Record 1917-1967 the live album as the best LP of the group that it was " a live performance that brings out the best from the creativity of the trio. "
Scott Yanow confirmed this view in Allmusic ( "Essential music from a classic band"), gave him the highest rating and said: Although the solos were always played with passion and spontaneous, they were the very complex arrangements that made this recording unique.
The title of the album
- The Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Festival Shakepearean ( Clef MGC 751 ( unpublished); Verve MGV 8024 (LP), Verve 513752-2 (CD) )
- The title 7-11 are bonus tracks not on the original album ( Verve MGV 8024 ) included.
More Albums by the Peterson trio with Brown and Ellis
- Oscar Peterson Plays Vincent Youmans ( Clef, 1953)
- Pastel Moods By Oscar Peterson ( Verve, 1954)
- Oscar Peterson Plays Harry Warren ( Clef, 1954)
- Nostalgic Memories By Oscar Peterson ( Clef / Verve, 1954)
- Oscar Peterson / In Concert ( Verve, 1956)