Great Jazz Albums (IMO) #50

Oscar Peterson.  The Oscar Peterson Trio At The Concertgebouw (1957).  As I was thinking about who to add to the first fifty posts, I looked over the prior picks to see if there were any blatant omissions of jazz greats to date.  I seemed to have missed Oscar Peterson, one of the greatest jazz piano players of all time.  Peterson was known for "his prodigious technique at the piano, and his tremendous sense of swing."  As one critic put it, his "speed, dexterity, and ability to swing at any tempo were amazing."  Peterson recorded over 200 albums, the best of which, in my opinion, are the ones with his great trio of the mid-1950s, consisting of Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar.  They made several excellent recordings, including The Oscar Peterson Trio At The Concertgebouw, which was actually recorded not at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, but at the Civic Opera House in Chicago.  One reviewer noted that this album finds the trio at the "peak of its powers."  Peterson sounds "especially inspired," with "the very tricky arrangements sandwiched between remarkable solos."

[Related posts:  Great Jazz Albums  #1 (Hank Mobley), #2 (Horace Silver), #3 (Sonny Rollins), #4 (Sonny Clark), #5 (Dexter Gordon), #6 (Cannonball Adderley); #7 (Bill Evans), #8 (McCoy Tyner), #9 (Clifford Brown), #10 (Sinatra), #11 (Monk), #12 (Kenny Dorham), #13 (Coltrane), #14 (Duke Ellington), #15 (Miles Davis), #16 (Wayne Shorter), #17 (Dinah Washington); #18 (Sarah Vaughan); #19 (Stan Getz); #20 (Blue Mitchell); #21 (Gene Ammons); #22 (Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers); #23 (Red Garland); #24 (Ella Fitzgerald); #25 (Charlie Parker); #26 (Art Pepper); #27 (Bud Powell); #28 (John Hicks); #29 (Kenny Barron); #30 (Coleman Hawkins); #31 (Count Basie);  #32 (Benny Carter w/ Ben Webster and Barney Bigard); #33 (Chet Baker); #34 (Thad  Jones); #35 (The Great Jazz Trio); #36 (Ahmad Jamal); #37 (Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond); #38 (Johnny Griffin and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis); #39 (Charles McPherson);  #40 (Harold Land); #41 Booker Little); #42 (Elis Regina & Antonio Carlos Jobim); #43 (Art Farmer & Benny Golson); #44 (Wynton Kelly); #45 (Tony Bennett/Bill Evans; # 46 (Barry Harris); #47 (Elmo Hope)]; #48 (Mel Torme); #49 (Miles Davis All Stars)]