Search - Oscar Peterson :: At Newport Live

Hot mainstram at Newport

Nikica Gilic | Zagreb, Croatia | 11/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If I carry on like this, I'll end up buying the entire Newport 1957 series...



This is another hot gem - first the Oscar Peterson trio lights the fire with some really well tuned in and hot playing, starting with "Will You Be Mine" and ending with Monk's "52nd Street Theme", another showstopper... I can see why are Oscar, Ray Brown (b) and Herb Ellis (g) considered one of the best trios in the history of jazz (eqal to Benny Goodman trio with Hampton and Wilson...)...

And then come Jo Jones (dm), Sonny Stitt (ts,as) and Roy Eldridge (tp) to make things even more hot and swinging, jamming with Oscar's trio like mad on "Monitor Blues" and "Roy's Son", but also giving subtle performances on "Willow Weep for Me" (Roy) and "Autumn in New York" (Sonny)...



This is mainstram jazz at its best or, as liner notes author Bill Simon put it at the time : "The style?...Let's call it not Dixieland, sometimes bebop, and sometimes something else."

I only wish that original liner notes were complemented with a fresh look at these great jazz performances, and an aditional picture of two would also be nice, but that's not important when music is shining so brightly...



BTW - Roy Eldridge and Jo Jones really had a good year at Newport that time; check out "Coleman Hawkins All stars" album and "Count Basie at Newport" ( At Newport Live , Count Basie at Newport ).

And if you want to see some later but equally hot (and at balladering - subtle) work from Roy Eldridge, who happens to be one of my favorite jazz musicians, check out his collaboration with Basie on Loose Walk in the same Norman Granz fashioned festival - jamming format.



To see the span and majesty of Peterson in full, you might start with Jazz Odyssey..."