You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Our Favorite Oscar Peterson Fireworks

Episode Date: February 6, 2020

We all know Oscar Peterson is one of (if not the) greatest jazz pianists of all time, but what are his best musical moments? Peter and Adam give their list in this episode.Go to our Spotify playlist to hear all of these tunes for yourself!There's a new course from Open Studio: Elements of Solo Piano! Learn from modern jazz master Geoffrey Keezer as he shows you the strategies and techniques to become a better solo pianist. You'll also get Guided Practice Sessions featuring Adam Maness, where he walks you through how to practice each lesson in the course. And for even more piano courses, sign up for the Piano Access Pass.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Pete. Hey. What do you know about this? Bidding-Damp. Hmm. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast.

Daily music advice and fat tracks, P.H. Fat. Come on. That was awesome. That's St. Louis' own Clark Terry with Toronto, Ontario's own Oscar Peterson and the trio, brotherhood of man, right? Toronto. You know, Oscar is actually born in Montreal. That's right.

Why did I say Toronto? He kind of made a name for himself. Did he? Okay. Yeah, there was a little neighborhood. We got a little statue of them up there, I think. Oh, nice. So today we are talking about the great Oscar Peterson.

We thought it would be fun to just have a little listening sesh. A little sash. A little sash. We'll put a smile on our face. Yeah, we're calling this our favorite Oscar Peterson fireworks moments. And some of these aren't even like explicitly fireworksy, but everything the dude played was a banger. Exactly. And I mean, actually, you know, some of the stuff,

that he's not as heralded for, I think, is some of the stuff that he's most brilliant on, like his accompaniment there. You know, Oscar Pearson had the ability to, you know, actually we're going to hear a little bit on the live with Ellen, not to give too much away. Like, for anybody else would be total over accompaniment, but his musical taste was at such a high level

that he could put so many notes in that they made so much sense. You know, he had such a, just acuteness to his stylings. But then he could play very subtle at times, too, and be equally as powerful. So I'm a fan. I don't know about you. I'm a huge fan. Is that passive aggressive? No, not at all.

Let's kick it off here. So this is my first choice. So this is number one. Number one. This is How High the Moon. It's another live album, but it's his own trio. Yeah. This is live at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

This is How High the Moon. We've got a nice little solo here by the Great Ray Brown. Let's get into, uh, let's get an Oscar. solo here. The solo just keeps going and going and going. Is anybody better than Ray Brown, a bad exact line? No. Okay.

That's... Objectively no. You can already tell he's kind of feeling this. I know. And this is like a wow recorded piano, like the mics, the mixes all off, and it's still killing. That's when you know you're killing. This is what I call when you're stuck in a swing.

Like there's literally... Now, you could have put a... got to their head. They were not going to leave the swing. They couldn't. It was stuck, man. It's a quicksand. It just keeps elevating. And the fact that they did this back in the 1600s with William Shakespeare is even more impressive.

Bill Shakes here ahead of their time. Yee jazz. Losey double stops, come on. You like this one, don't you? I do like this one. I mean, this is just the tip of the iceberg on the solo. I don't want to waste too much time on it.

But, dude, check it out. Live at the Strasford Shakespeare Festival. It's that and all that more But we have six more to go here And we have your first choice This is Sandy's Blues Oh yeah So this is from

This is live And he I like this because it's You know As he often did Start out with some killer solo piano Yeah But I love the transitions I think Oscar Peterson

In terms of So I don't even know if we can listen to that much But we can let me start at the beginning And then see we might have to jump ahead But best transitioner ever Like best break player maybe ever You understood architect actually.

Oh, I know this. This is great. And that left-hand tone. The shaney wasn't more soulful. That's all. I know, yeah. Making all kinds of stank face on this. I know.

And his transitions between triplets and 16-thous. It's like so. And even 32nd notes? No. A little independent of the hands there? A little independent. This is, man, this is some heavy fireworks for a song. It's actually gray brown sitting at the bottom of piano,

walking a bass line for him. That's what it sounds like. Sandy's blues. That's from volume three of the... Yeah. Wait, can we keep playing just until the... This could be 35... I should be a more course, maybe.

It's so lovely. And that seems really easy what he's doing there, but that's like, you know... And he's coming down as the trio comes in. Man, that's so great stuff. Yeah. Beautiful. Standing ovation.

I'm standing. What do you think, Alex? Is that meet your standards? Yeah. All right, so next we have Quiet Nights from one of my favorite Oscar Peterson Trio records we get requests you know this track

so speaking of breaks I picked this because of the break here start that one again sorry because we were sort of talk but just check out that like if you do something with a cool arrangement at the beginning with a trio you set the bar high and they're going to have no problem keeping up with this but what a great thing as we're thinking about

arranging this is a great lesson do not sleep on Oscar Peterson in that you lionize them so much that you're like I can never do anything you could do. Yeah, you can't do what he does. But we can learn a lot, even if we can't play all the technical stuff. Because what really he's not just about that, the arrangement that...

Yep, that part. Exactly. You know what we call this feel too in my trio? We call this the Swamba. A little swamp samba. Swing Samba. Swampa. Swampa. Tess, test, tuss, tass, sats, a little swampa. And so a little

arrangement thing, he's letting the bass be out front. I mean, obviously in the mix, but Oscar's playing very light. voicing that left hand really well. Louisiana and Rio de Janeiro, the Swamba. You're kind of twisting right now. You are. You're kind of doing a Nancy Sinatra dance.

And you know what? I mean, to me, the best piano trios, I mean, I know I'm going to get dinged for saying this, but they're kind of like what they're playing. They could be at the Ramada in North by the airport, Lambert St. Louis Airport, just like in the corner of the lobby doing this, and it would actually fit in.

fit in. It would be like the best hotel band of Trio ever. You know what I mean? But it's got that kind of taste and you know. Give me the side eye there. No. It's not feeling it. You got to think about it. You see, you hear that joke for, you hear that analogy first and later on you're

going to see what I'm saying. Can we hear this third course? Sorry. It's Corcovado, quiet nights of quiet stars from We Get Request, Oscar Peterson Trio. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. All right. Next thing is. This is not an Oscar record. This is an Ele Fitzgerald record.

Oh, which one? Oh, the live. Stomping at the Savoy from Ele Fitzgerald live in Rome, birthday concert. Let's have an old gander at that one. Oh, that's how you can tell it's live. Yeah. The lap track. Oh, they're jazzed.

Italians, man. Italians love that. Well, the Pope was on stage with Ellis, so it was kind of a dual thing. She kind of swings. Yeah. And I think what happened was Oscar was like sitting in on this Like this one of those normally Grants concerts

Because his trio was there too I love the way he plays a lot behind A lot I mean those Ella Louie records right He's playing a solo behind what they're doing It sounds perfect I don't know how I remember I try it I get glared at

Don't try it You're gonna hurt yourself You're putting in jail by the jazz police There was some kind of joke on it here I think you Oscar We're through That was a big of a joke about Oscar

Sam boy It wins you at a glance Yeah Yeah I think you set that up all right? Okay Very good Very good

You get an A for effort And an A for delivery Amazing I got to check out the whole record. That's a fun one. I'm embarrassed to say I've never heard that album. I mean, to me, like the Ella Fitzgerald live stuff is some of the, I mean, she could go in and just, like, read and learn those standards incredibly, Rogers

and Hart in the studio. I mean, she was seeing a lot of those songs for the first time and made them her own. But the live stuff where she cuts loose to me is a lot of fun. And agree. All right. Well, speaking to more Oscar breaks, this is from the album Night Train. This is C-Jamp Blues. We could have put any track from Night Train.

on here. Yeah. Because that was like, I think, just a pinnacle moment for him. I think for pianists, too, I don't know if it was just kind of like when we were coming. No, it's several generate. Like, that's been a record that pianists for Oscar Peterson really gravitate towards the whole record. It was one of the first albums I ever had as a kid.

I think it was definitely the first Oscar. Me too. Me too. So this is C. Jam Blues, the simplicity of it and then just the absolute sheer burningness of it. Check it out. I'm trying to think Oscar's secret weapon was Ray Brown. Yeah, man.

Maybe Oscar wasn't actually that great. You just had Ray Brown walking. It just shows you, got to get a good bass player. Exactly. Break number one. Now, swing, swing, swing, swing, swing. I love the breaks keep on swinging.

I love the breaks keep coming to this one, too. It's like, he's like, you know what I'm good at? Bricks. Exactly. Let's just have a tune full of break. He's like, I'm good with a trio player and I'm good with their night. It doesn't make it different. He's like, you thought it.

Come on. I don't. I like it, though. I can go either way, though. Not a problem. Keep him coming, Ray. But this becomes such. a cool like architectural thing of the arrangement for sure oh you want me to play one note not a problem

it's still gonna swing going it's all about the ease too man yeah then like just heightens the expectation and it's not like he built he's just doing different kinds of breaks each time which is so cool it's not like oh i got a one-up the last one it's like a variety show you know and then he's just in there it's so good so nice once again exceeded expectations oscar you know Well, we started this podcast recording session in a low place. We did. We were in a rut. We should have started with, that was bad.

You just got back from Chipotle. I don't know what was going on in belly, but it was not good. What's the opposite of a big shout out? I want to give a big thumbs down to Chipotle for what it did to my spirit today. I don't want, I don't know why I'm blaming them. You came in a bad mood. I didn't. You were not ready for this.

You know what it was? It was, let's not talk about that. Let's talk about literally Oscar Peterson is the opposite of Chipotle. Yeah, I think he brings joy. There was a nice buffer where we recorded our mindfulness episode. That kind of. was a contemplative place for us. But all right, I got 5% left

on my computer here. Come on, let's see this. All right, we got it, we got. This is what we started with today. This is Brotherhood of Man. Oh, yeah, Clark Terry. Yeah, Clark Terry. Yeah, Clark, Terry.

Is this the piano solo? Is he the first off? No. But just listen to the way. Oh, the voicing, yeah. The weight of his hands. And this, the effortless mastery of the rhythmic.

Yeah. Come on, Clark. Come on, man. I want to go play a gig. I know. This is a little ice cream changes too. I like that. A Little Sane-Lose ice cream changes.

There you go. Man, that's so nice. Brotherhood of Man from Oscar Peterson Trio Plus 1. What was that number six? That was number six. Oh, so I know what number seven's going to be. I've an incomplete list, but I know where you're going with this. You know where I'm going?

With this. Yeah. We're going to have to go to that. Let's start the beginning, then we'll go to that special time. That special moment. TTD, right? You want to start at the beginning? I'm not even going to start at the beginning.

Oh, you're going right to it? Well, give it a little bit of buffer, though. If you got the battery power. Peterson Trio. I don't know. Have we talked about this one? What? Yeah.

I don't even know. Orchestration. Move, restraint. I mean, just effortless. Effortless mastery. Pat, this is so sweet. Now the preparation starts. It really starts here.

He's setting up something. Setting up. Set up. Man, I'm already hooked. I'm already in. I know what's going to happen. Oh, that's coming. And it's still, I'm still.

That doesn't make you tap for. Come on. You need the, you need the. You need the electricity on the chest, what's that called? Electricity. Stat. Bring you back to life. Come on.

Oh, the paddles. The paddles. Yeah. You need some opi paddles. You need a fibulator. Yeah, defibrillator. You need a refibrillator. What record is that from?

How do I not know the name of the record? I don't know. Dude, it's, uh, whatever it is. Let's see. It's from... It's going to be on the playlist. We're doing a Spotify playlist, right? Here it's from celebrating...

Wait, no. What is it? We'll have a link here to the Spotify playlist. If you're not on Spotify. One of those from my friends volume one. Oh, that's right, right, right. Yeah, one of the volumes. Yeah, so we got a Spotify playlist.

Why am I stopping this? I'm just going to keep this role. Yeah, keep it going on. Check out our Spotify playlist. It's unbelievable. If you're not hip to Oscar Peterson, which if you're listening to this podcast, you probably are.

Yeah. But if you're not that much, check this playlist out. And our apologies for talking over all this. But that's what the playlist is for. Now you can go enjoy it without our witless commentary. No, I got to say, too, if you're ever feeling down, are frustrated.

I'm inspired. Come on. High five. Put on this playlist. What I'm talking about. Nice one, Alex. Anyway, thanks for listening and leave us a rating and review.

Peter loves the rating and reviews. I need them. Yeah. It's my bloodline. And until tomorrow, you'll hear it. Sclam blam. Blam. Slam blam.

Bamb blam. Sclam blam blam. Blam. Blam blam. Bidam. But keep playing. I keep playing. Blam.

Blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam.