Oscar Peterson – Exclusively for My Friends: My Favorite Instrument, Vol. IV (Live) (2003/2024) [FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz]

Oscar Peterson – Exclusively for My Friends: My Favorite Instrument, Vol. IV (Live) (2003/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 40:17 minutes | 711 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS

“The beauty of Oscar Peterson’s sound has never been as superbly captured as this.“ (Jazz critic Gene Lees in the original liner notes) When the world-renowned Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson came to Villingen in 1961, there was a mood of intense excitement all round. Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer (HGBS), former owner of the hifi dynasty SABA, had just set up the first version of his studio, equipped with the most advanced recording technology of the time, above the living-room in his villa. This was the bait used by the piano enthusiast to attract the famous pianist to the Black Forest. After a guest performance in Zurich, Peterson climbed into a limousine and embarked on a journey across the mountains. As soon as he arrived, along with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen, the international star was led to the Steinway grand in the living-room where several excited guests were eagerly waiting. In the following years, the Canadian pianist returned again and again to the Black Forest with various line-ups to capture his musical vision on tape. As Peterson was still under contract to Verve, the recordings could not be released before 1968. The legendary Exclusively For My Friends series was the first release for Brunner-Schwer‘s newly-established MPS label. Never before had a recording captured every aspect of Peterson’s ground-breaking sound so vividly: the virtuosity and the speed as well as the delicate inspiration he brings to the subtle and reflective moments.Oscar Peterson recorded a remarkable amount of albums during his career but, surprisingly, this was his first full record of unaccompanied piano solos. Some observers consider his MPS recordings to be his best (quite a few are collected in the four-CD reissue Exclusively for My Friends, including this one). The solo album features Peterson (freed from the constraints of his trio) stretching out on nine familiar standards and really tearing into a few of them, including “Perdido,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “Lulu’s Back in Town,” while giving “Little Girl Blue” a beautiful and lyrical treatment. A prelude to his outstanding Pablo recordings, My Favorite Instrument is one of Peterson’s top albums of the 1960s. – Scott Yanow

Tracklist:

1-1. Oscar Peterson – Someone to Watch Over Me (Live) (04:13)
1-2. Oscar Peterson – Perdido (Live) (06:12)
1-3. Oscar Peterson – Body and Soul (Live) (04:32)
1-4. Oscar Peterson – Who Can I Turn To (Live) (04:55)
1-5. Oscar Peterson – Bye Bye Blackbird (Live) (04:52)
1-6. Oscar Peterson – I Should Care (Live) (04:44)
1-7. Oscar Peterson – Lulu’s Back in Town (Live) (02:05)
1-8. Oscar Peterson – Little Girl Blue (Live) (06:04)
1-9. Oscar Peterson – Take the “A” Train (Live) (02:37)

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