Search - Oscar Peterson, Stephane Grappelli :: Jazz in Paris: Oscar Peterson, Stephane Grappelli Quartet, Vol. 1

When Stephane Grappelli entered the recording studio with Oscar Peterson in 1973 to record this collection of standards, it marked his 50th anniversary as a professional musician. Grappelli's most famous collaboration was of course his six-year stint in the 1930s with the Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, but it wasn't until he started playing with pianists like Peterson that he really developed into a world-class soloist. Peterson's lush, full chords suit Grappelli's unabashedly romantic style perfectly, and on ballads like "My One and Only Love" his fiddling is lyrical, but with a melancholy depth that keeps it from descending into mere prettiness. The other musicians include bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Kenny Clark, whose supple, swinging rhythm gives the solos a gentle lift while driving them forward. Peterson and Grappelli were both old pros when they made this record, but the charm of tracks like "Thou Swell" and "Makin' Whoopee" show that even after decades in the business, they hadn't lost the ability to surprise and delight each other.