Oscar Swings...

Some brilliant footage today forwarded to me by Regina jazz bassist & visionary Carlo Petrovitch.

Here's the Oscar Peterson Trio with drummer Ed Thigpen (showing NO mercy on the drums!) and Ray Brown bass, all featured on Ray Bryant's latin jazz classic "Cubano Chant":



Carlo explicitly told me to mention the ENORMOUS bass that Ray Brown is playing in that clip !

While browsing other Oscar Peterson clips on youtube.com I came across another Peterson favorite of mine, originally introduced to me by another Regina jazz musician, Jim Gallagher.

Here's another incarnation of the Oscar Peterson Trio performing "Blues Etude":



There's more than a few lessons in there !

The Oscar Peterson Trio (with Ed Thigpen on drums) was one of my first formative influences while I was checking out jazz music during my teens. In my high school library, the music section (one small shelf!) contained only three jazz records, but all of which still influence me to this day:

Oscar Peterson - "Night Train" w/Ed Thigpen on drums

Buddy Rich - "West Side Story"

Dave Brubeck - "Time Out" w/Joe Morello on drums

Those were the right three albums !