Product Description
Personnel: Oscar Peterson (piano); Ray Brown, Sam Jones (bass); Ed Thigpen, Bobby Durham, Louis Hayes (drums).
Recorded in George Brunner-Schwer's private studio in Villingen, Germany between 1963 and 1968. Includes liner notes by Sigfried Schmidt-Joos and Baldur Bockhoff.
EXCLUSIVELY FOR MY FRIENDS contains the 6 LPs Oscar Peterson recorded for the German label MPS (Musik Produktion Schwarzwald). Three of the discs are trio recordings and one is of solo piano. The set includes a 32-page booklet with historic black and white photographs and a discography with pictures of the original album covers.
Oscar Peterson has stated that he feels his MPS recordings are his finest. That is quite a statement considering the huge amount of records that the pianist has produced through the past 50 years. This four-CD set reissues the music from six of his MPS LPs: Action, Girl Talk, The Way I Really Play, My Favorite Instrument, Mellow Mood, and Travelin' On. While some of the performances feature the 1963 trio he had with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen, most of the music dates from 1967-1968 and matches Peterson with bassist Sam Jones and either Louis Hayes or Bobby Durham on drums. A special treat is Peterson's first unaccompanied solo album, which fills up the final CD. Peterson's many fans know what to expect in this set, while other listeners need to discover him to realize what all of the fuss was about. Quite simply, Oscar Peterson has long been one of the greatest pianists the world has ever known; this reissue offers plenty of proof. ~ Scott Yanow
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