At the Concertgebouw

Read About This Recording

The Peterson-Ellis-Brown group, arguably the pianist's finest band, toured the world and recorded frequently during 1953-58. While Peterson, who combined the influence of Nat Cole's piano playing with the virtuosity of Art Tatum, was the star, Ellis and Brown constantly worked up tricky and colorful arrangements that gave the trio its own group sound. By 1956, the band was playing at an extremely high creative level, with the musicians challenging each other each night.

At The Concertgebouw was not actually recorded at a European concert but in Chicago. Despite the false labeling, this 1957 set (which has five additional selections from a Los Angeles concert) is the equal of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival recording. The Oscar Peterson Trio romps through such numbers as The Lady Is A Tramp, Bud Powell's Budo, Clifford Brown's Daahoud and Indiana.

After Ellis left the trio in 1958, Peterson and Brown decided that it would be impossible to find a guitarist who would fit the group as well as he had, so his replacement was drummer Ed Thigpen. Oscar Peterson has had a very busy career ever since and has recorded many classic sessions, but his trio with Brown and Ellis remains something very special.

-Scott Yanow

Extended Article

Recorded on tour during this classic trio's fourth year together, Peterson, Herb Ellis and Ray Brown had developed not just as soloists but as accompanists as well. The group's interaction was extremely intuitive - though as Ellis comments in the liner notes about the arrangements, They were very difficult and we didn't write them down. So you had to remember them...and there were a lot of them.

The LP's title, The Oscar Peterson Trio at the Concertgebouw, has been a red herring since its original issue. The music actually came from a concert at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. Further, the bonus tracks on this CD are from an LP that was titled The Modern Jazz Quartet and the Oscar Peterson Trio at the Opera House; but they came from a concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Oscar Peterson and his trio did perform at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam - at a midnight concert on April 12-13, 1958. No recording of this concert has been found.

Contents

The Lady Is A Tramp; We'll Be Together Again; Bluesology; Budo (aka Hallucinations); I've Got The World On A String; Daahoud; When Lights Are Low; Evrev; Should I?*; Big Fat Mama*; (Back Home Again In) Indiana*; Joy Spring*; Elevation*.

(*Bonus tracks.)

Oscar Peterson, Piano; Herb Ellis, Guitar; Ray Brown, Bass.

CD Special Features

The title The Oscar Peterson Trio at the Concertgebouw has been a red herring since its original LP issue. This session actually came from a JATP concert in Chicago (the bonus tracks come from Los Angeles). No matter what the location, this is still one of the Peterson Trio's greatest live performances!