Canadian Masters and their Works
Oscar Peterson – The Trio Live - From Chicago – 1961 
Biography by Len Dobbin
Oscar Peterson is 81 as I write these liner notes. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, on August 15, 1925. As a teen, I listened to his radio broadcasts from the Alberta Lounge, located where the Chateau Champlain stands today, right across from the old Windsor Train Station. I immediately became a big Peterson fan and, with the occasional concert, I enjoyed his music on some of the sixteen 78s he recorded for Canadian RCA Victor between 1945 and 1949.
In 1949, at the invitation of Norman Granz, Peterson made a “surprise appearance” at a “Jazz at the Philharmonic” concert in New York’s famed Carnegie Hall, an appearance that brought the musician, who was to grow into a major talent, to the attention of the American jazz community. He had a good professional relationship with Granz on the basis that he could veto anything he didn’t like.
The classic trio of Oscar, Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen was formed in 1958 when Ed joined in place of guitarist Herb Ellis. Ray Brown, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1926, studied piano before taking up the bass. Today he stands as one of the premier jazz bassists. He was the one who joined Oscar on stage the night of the famous Carnegie Hall surprise appearance of September 1949. That was not a first as Ray had met and heard Oscar’s trio at the Alberta Lounge on visits to Montreal. Ed Thigpen was born in Chicago in 1930. The son of a famous drummer, Ben Thigpen who played with Andy Kirk and Mary Lou Williams. Ed developed into a first rate drummer with exquisite taste. In later years, both Brown and Thigpen recorded with other Canadian jazz musicians such as Oliver Jones and Ranee Lee.
It’s great to have this 1961 session from the beginnings of the trio’s six year history (1959-1965), a time when Oscar was in his mid-thirties and in full command of his powers. The trio is in peak form throughout this concert recorded at the London House in Chicago.
Links
http://www.oscarpeterson.com/
http://www.oscarpeterson.com/op/index.html
http://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/oscarpeterson/index-f.html
http://archives.radio-canada.ca/IDD-0-18-403/personnalites/oscar_peterson