OSCAR PETERSON “Live at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge”

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ARTIST

Oscar Peterson

ALBUM TITLE

“Live at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge”

LABEL

Verve

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Later in this issue (MJ May 2026), in our interview with Mark Stryker, author of the excellent liner notes for this previously unreleased recording, we attempt to assess Peterson’s importance in the history of the piano trio with double bass and drums. The pianist had finally decided to make the drums a permanent part of his group in 1959, following the departure of guitarist Herb Ellis. After a few months – and one album – with Brown and the little-known but dependable Gene Gammage, Peterson brought on board Ed Thigpen, the son of a musician and not yet thirty years old. Thrust at very short notice onto the most prestigious stages of the international circuit alongside two imposing figures such as Peterson and Brown, the young drummer acquitted himself magnificently. Over the years, he would prove to be a musician of exceptional sensitivity, although he is unfortunately almost always overlooked in discussions of the great masters of jazz drumming.

The 27 tracks included on this triple LP, whose existence had remained entirely unknown until now, allow us to hear the trio at length during a two-week engagement in Detroit. Any number of explanations may account for the tape’s failure to appear at the time, and it is reasonable to assume that Norman Granz’s gradual withdrawal from record production, on the eve of Verve’s sale to MGM, played a significant part. A year later, the trio would record live once again, this time at the London House in Chicago, and it is likely that the triumphant success of those later performances – which eventually yielded no fewer than four LPs – consigned the material from Baker’s Keyboard Lounge to oblivion.

In some respects, the decision is understandable. The year separating the Detroit engagement from the Chicago dates made a considerable difference to the group’s cohesion. Here, the trio was still searching for a distinctive approach to interplay, although the overall standard was already exceptionally high. Peterson dominates from beginning to end, often relegating Brown and Thigpen to the role of luxury accompanists. Yet one can clearly sense how eager the two musicians were to break free, something that could hardly have escaped a leader of Peterson’s extraordinary intelligence. Today, this album allows us to observe in detail the work in progress that would help shape one of the great piano trios in jazz. Not to be missed.

Luca Conti

DISTRIBUTED BY

Universal

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