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Oscar Peterson Performance 1983 Live in Tokyo

Rick Beato has a youtube entitled greatest solo of all time. I went for it and Beato pulls out this Oscar Peterson trio performance at Ronni Scotts 1974. Oscar burns a hole in the floor with the longest, beautifully tuned grand I have ever seen. From both a technical  and musical standpoint, darn it if Beato isn't right! So, I pulled up the entire performance and watched it on the big system. The trio is Oscar, Neils Pederson (bass) and Joe Pass (guitar). Oscar is doubling as percussion. The entire performance is mind bending. I never realized how good Pederson and Pass were. I'd never heard them in a live performance. The Studio Records always seemed to me to be...contrived. Not forgetting about Oscar's playing, Pederson and Pass are both up there with the greats. Even if the music is not your cup of tea the technique of all three artists will amaze. There are more "I can't believe he just did that" moments in this video than I have ever seen and heard in one performance before. If you have not seen it please enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBJ1vU23X4A
128x128mijostyn
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,226 posts
 
@frogman , whoops, I did give the wrong link. Thanx for pointing that out. Not sure how I did that as I was watching the Ronnie Scott's performance. Computers. 
That's why that piano is so big, that extra 1/2 octave. Must add 5 feet the the piano!
Wouldn't you like to give Joe Pass a Les Paul and see what happens?

@tablejockey,  that atmosphere is pretty generic among jazz musicians. At Blakey and Bill Evans come to mind. They played in clubs. If you are going to practice you might as well get paid for it. I think the atmosphere adds to the recording and on a good system you can imagine being in the venue. 


flennon
133 posts
 
I saw the Beato video too and I think he was right calling it  the greatest solo he had ever heard. Beato is really good at breaking down what is happening and clearly understands musical theory as well as the musicianship itself. Such a great performance that Kessel and Pederson were both blown away by it as well.
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,291 posts
 
Thanks for posting @mijostyn 

I just watched the clip on Beato's channel.  Simply amazing.  Oscar seems super human (especially what he's playing starting around 13:00 minutes).  The looks between his sidemen are priceless.  Enjoyed the whole thing very much.   
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn OP
8,226 posts
 
To all, yup the look on them was incredulous and they know what's going on! I have no idea what Peterson is doing from a technical standpoint other than he can go unbelievably fast. He has trained himself to think that fast. He is choosing every note at best in chord form. He plays as fast as any drummer, well maybe not Gavin Harrison, but he is also selecting the notes and the rhythm. A drummer only has to choose from perhap 10 items to hit ( Not Chad Wackerman or Terry Bozio) a piano player has 108 keys. Not sure, I thick Oscar's piano goes down another octave. 
There is a magic in some humans. They can excel at certain tasks far beyond a normal one, Maybe average would be better than normal. 
Don't you wish you could drive an F1 car like Max, or play the piano like Oscar maybe cycle like Lance(w/o the drugs)? It's enough to give us average persons a complex! Or is it that us average folks excel at something else :-)
mspot
113 posts
 
Here is a link to the 1974 Ronnie Scott’s trio performance:

https://youtu.be/MnR6R4vXgUM

Mijo, you mention the beautiful grand piano. Listen to the first note one hears on the above video. Even on my iPad one can hear that the piano is Oscar’s instrument of choice, the Bosendorfer.

The piano in the video is Steinway. See at 7:58.
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