Long Lost 1960 Oscar Peterson Trio Recordings Set for Release
‘Oscar Peterson Trio: Live at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge,’ recorded in 1960, is now getting its first-ever release.
One of Oscar Peterson’s classic jazz recordings is getting a long-overdue release. Oscar Peterson Trio: Live at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge consists of live recordings from 1960 but has never been released—until now. The album is due out on April 17 via Verve Records, and will be available on CD, vinyl, and digital. The first single “S’posing” is out now.
Recorded in Detroit 66 years ago, Oscar Peterson Trio: Live at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge comprises five different sets all performed during the engagement. The standard version of the work, which will be released on CD and 1LP, includes selections from all five sets. The complete recordings includes all five sets in the order they were played, and will be released on a 3LP version and digitally. The 3LP version includes extensive liner notes authored by Mark Stryker, a Detroit jazz historian. The recordings are finally being made available after they were discovered in a mislabeled box in the Verve vaults.
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Performing here with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen, Peterson is one of the defining jazz artists of his era and one of the greatest pianists of all time. Throughout his career, Peterson created more than 200 recordings. Born in Canada in 1925, Peterson performed in duos, trios, and quartets throughout his long career, performing in smaller clubs, like the 99-seat Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, before working up to bigger concert halls. “In clubs our playing would always be a lot looser, and we’d look at one another a different way, more eye contact, perhaps a different type of challenge,” Peterson reflected years later in an interview with Jazzwise. “We might push the music into different directions in a way that we would not on the concert stage.”
Peterson performed at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge 18 times between 1957 and 1972, but Oscar Peterson Trio: Live at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge is a rare recording from the historic club, captured at a time when Detroit was at the center of the jazz world.
Buy the Oscar Peterson Trio’s Live at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge on vinyl and CD here.
