Oscar Peterson - Oscar Peterson Plays the Duke Ellington Song Book

This CD combines two LPs devoted to the same Duke Ellington material recorded by different versions of the Oscar Peterson trio. The first is of particular interest. Dating from 1952, it was a special event, exploiting the then-new LP format to include a dozen of Ellington's most familiar tunes and featuring a superb band. The young Peterson could generate the swing of a big band, while the similarly virtuosic bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Barney Kessel complement him brilliantly. Together they combine boppish approaches and inspired interplay (and a kinetic energy that you would never expect from a trio without drums) to staples like "In a Mellow Tone," "Take the 'A' Train," and "Rockin' in Rhythm." The second half of the CD is a 1959 stereo remake of the original 1952 session, but with drummer Ed Thigpen taking Kessel's place. Despite the similarity in the material, it's an utterly different session, typical of the masterful manner that Peterson gradually developed. It's well-made music, played with consummate polish and ease and clear regard for the material, though without the inventive edges of the earlier group. --Stuart Broomer Amazon.com

Great, brilliant music. Noisy - but you can fix it if you want to.

Thank heavens for all concerned who got this record made. Oscar Peterson is at his absolute, towering best on these tracks, playing with such energy and expression you sit back and open your eyes, your jaw drops, and then you smile. Then you start tapping your foot and rocking your head, or taking a slow breath on the softer songs. Music on this level is rare indeed. I have nearly all of OP's records, and I'll say that these cuts reside at the top of his works. Oh so wonderful to hear, especially the first twelve tracks.

Unfortunately, those first twelve tracks are quite noisy. The original tapes were lost, and these cuts were transcribed from vinyl. As they are, there's nothing wrong with listening to some scratchy records. I've done it a thousand times over the years, and the music is still there. But since this is the digital era, there are options. I record all my music on my hard disk, and if you do too it means you can edit the tracks.

Don't be afraid; it's easy. All you need is a sound editing program. I use Adobe Audition, which is expensive, but you can use Audacity, which a terrific program for the right price: free. First rip the CD onto the hard disc, then open the song files in the sound editor. These programs have noise reduction functions that are extremely sophisticated and powerful built into them, as good as most professional studios. Play with the settings until you get the noise down to where you find it acceptable or inoffensive, but not so much that you blunt the music. The programs really work; you'll have MUCH less noise, and the recordings will sound terrific. Then save the file, and you're set. Play like any other record. A tip: rip the CD as WAV files to do the editing. You can always convert to MP3 if you want, but your results won't be as good if you try to edit compressed files.

The noisiest track is #12, Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me, which Oscar tranforms into something living and breathing. Just uncanny music. I'm listening to it as I type this, and there still is some noise, but it's A LOT less, not enough to get in the way of enjoying the artistry. His genius and skills all came together here, so it was worth touching up. He does a second version on track 23, and it's wonderful, but the first one is a true standout among jazz performances. What's a little noise when the music's this superb?

The whole process took me about 25 minutes, a bit of a nuisance but so what. I probably would have goofed off if I hadn't sat down and done it. Now I've got these phenomenal tracks that I'm certain to play again and again.

There is a different edition of these recordings available, with some noise reduction already done, as mentioned by another reviewer, but I'd rather do my own. A heavy hand dilutes the energy of the music, but if you do it yourself you'll get it just how you like it. And it's fun! Editing your records is one of the kicks of digital music. You can easily trim unwanted applause, talking between tracks, overlong tracks, do fade-ins, fade-outs, make soft parts louder or loud parts softer, repeat choruses, get rid of draggy sections and lots more, just like the pros. Plus you can record old vinyl records, and get rid of the scratches! How cool is that? Even if you don't feel like editing this disk, get ahold of a sound editing program. You'll have a blast.

To sum up after all that long-winded rambling: Buy this CD! It's awesome. It's got some of the best jazz by the best artists ever recorded.

Enjoy,

Tom B March 24, 2007

Jazz Student

As a beginning student of jazz piano, I bought Oscar Peterson's book of Duke Ellington jazz transcripts. Many of the pieces were from this particular album, which was extremely difficult to locate until I discovered Amazon.com. I think the pieces are brilliantly rendered by Peterson. They are not overstated with endless riffs and pyrotechnics. The improvisations fit the tunes without straying. The pieces aren't lenthy, but they are real jazz to me. January 9, 2007

Poor sound quality but there is a solution

This album was recorded at Radio Recorders in December 1952. Radio Recorders was among the best studios in the country at that time. Fred Astaire recorded a two disc album with Oscar Peterson that same month and it is crystal clean. Also Ben Webster recorded there with the Ravens in December 1952 as did Anita O'Day - all with good clean results. Clearly the Peterson tapes are missing and noisy discs were all that was available for the making of the Peterson cd.

Normaly I don't like noise reduction but... the 4 CD set Piano Power (available at Amazon) includes all the cuts on this Duke CD and are much, much quieter. Good use of noise reduction. February 21, 2006

Poor sound quality

The transfer to digital format from the analog source includes all of the tape hiss on this disc. The content is great, but the background noise is too much on my system. I'd look for another title from OP and pass on this one. April 19, 2005

A great Album- Amazon's Tracklisting wrong

This is a killer album. Peterson's trio is always unbelievably tight and polished, and playing the music of Duke Ellington... fugettaboutit!

However, Amazon's tracklisting does not include tracks 13-24. A different trio, it features Ray Brown on Bass(same as on tracks 1-12), but instead of the great Barney Kessel on Guitar, it has Ed "Pigpen" Thigpen on drums (Actually, that's not his nickname, I just like to call him that!) Although some of the tracks have a bit of high-end hiss, this is overall an amazing group. Highly recommended! January 13, 2005

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