Oscar Peterson: On a Clear Day

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Louis Hayes
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (b)
Oscar Peterson

Label:

Mack Avenue

April/2023

Media Format:

CD, 2 LP, DL

Catalogue Number:

MAC 1199

RecordDate:

Rec. 24 November 1971

This particular version of the Peterson trio was not together for very long. It followed the departure of George Mraz on bass, with the permanent arrival of NHØP, who had recently depped for him in Zagreb. And at the same time Hayes briefly returned to the group. The thrill of the crowd as drums and then bass open the concert by launching into a breakneck ‘The Lamp Is Low’ is palpable on this fine recording by Swiss radio, and the audience simply erupts as Peterson comes in with a tour-de-force solo of brilliance and wit. Peterson often talked of the hard work and arrangements that underpinned their apparently spontaneous presentation and some of that is apparent here on a mid-tempo ‘Younger Than Springtime’ with bass and piano nattily alternating the lead on the first chorus. After a romping ‘On a Clear Day’ – perhaps a tad quicker than the song deserves – Peterson shows his mastery of unaccompanied laid-back ballad playing with an introspective ‘Young and Foolish’.

Then the trio eases into place on ‘A Time For Love’, with NHØP simultaneously providing a bassline and an upper register commentary. The crowd gets some familiar fare with ‘Soft Winds’ (with some of the hardest-driving swing on the album) and ‘Mack The Knife’. (‘Soft Winds’ and ‘Younger Than Springtime’ are good, and I think preferable, alternatives to their final MPS recordings on the album Great Connection, done just a few months later.) A change of time signature for ‘Where Do I Go From Here?’ takes us into a dancing 6/8 feel, with a bass solo that has a strangely hard-edged tone, but nevertheless maintains the light-footed atmosphere through some dazzling melodic lines. The set-closing ‘On The Trail’ comes far too soon, with a simply astonishing final accelerando, and makes one wish this short-lived but well-rehearsed and empathetic line-up had recorded more.

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