Description
Especially the blues pieces such as Squeaky’s Blues, Blues For Smedley and Incoherent Blues are little oases of relaxed swing, freed as they are of the composers’ or producers’ preconceived ideas. In the liner notes, Oscar Peterson mentions how proud he is of the introduction to They Didn’t Believe. And he deserves to be, but not just of this! A further reason for the relaxed atmosphere may well be that Oscar Peterson was permitted to play his own piano for the first time at a recording session. Surely he makes special mention of this because at the highly praised live sessions for Verve in London House in 1962 he had to perform on an out-of-tune piano which impaired the recordings. Looking back, one shouldn’t forget either that Oscar Peterson’s ears had already been spoiled by the Steinway and Boesendorfer pianos of SABA producer Brunner-Schwer and his excellent recording technique in his Black Forest studio. Mercury’s equally good recording technique, which is just as legendary today and eclipsed many other companies in 1964, combined with the pure vinyl used for the present pressing guarantees excellent sound. No need to worry about finger snapping – that will start up spontaneously.
Jim
Blues For Smedley
Roundalay
Mumbles
Mack The Knife
They Didn’t Believe Me
Squeaky’s Blues
I Want A Little Girl
Incoherent Blues