Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson

by Oscar Peterson, Ben Webster

Overview

Another fine Webster release on Verve that sees the tenor great once again backed by the deluxe Oscar Peterson Trio. In keeping with the high standard of their Soulville collaboration of two years prior, Webster and the trio -- Peterson is joined by bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen -- use this 1959 date to conduct a clinic in ballad playing. And while Soulville certainly ranks as one of the tenor saxophonist's best discs, the Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson set gets even higher marks for its almost transcendent marriage of after-hours elegance and effortless mid-tempo swing -- none of Webster's boogie-woogie piano work to break up the mood here. Besides reinvigorating such lithe strollers as "Bye Bye Blackbird" (nice bass work by Brown here) and "This Can't Be Love," Webster and company achieve classic status for their interpretation of the Sinatra gem "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning." And to reassure Peterson fans worried about scant solo time for their hero, the pianist lays down a healthy number of extended runs, unobtrusively shadowing Webster's vaporous tone and supple phrasing along the way. Not only a definite first-disc choice for Webster newcomers, but one of the jazz legend's all-time great records. ~ Stephen Cook

Product Details

Release Date:	01/26/2010
Label:	Essential Jazz
UPC:	8436028694525
Rank:	43857

Tracks

Disc 1

1. The Touch of Your Lips
2. When Your Lover Has Gone
3. Bye Bye Blackbird
4. How Deep Is the Ocean
5. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
6. Sunday
7. This Can't Be Love
8. Poutin'
9. Cotton Taile
10. Danny Boy (Londonderry Air)
11. Bounce Blues
12. Bounce Blues
13. Tenderly
14. Ballad Medley: All the Things You Are/Dearly Beloved/The Nearness of You/I'll Get By/Everything Happens To Me/the Man I Love/What's New?/Someone To Watch Over Me/Isn't It Romantic

Disc 2

15. Soulville
16. Late Date
17. Time on My Hands
18. Lover, Come Back to Me
19. Where Are You?
20. Makin' Whoopee
21. Ill Wind
22. That's All
23. That's All
24. Pennies from Heaven
25. Jive at Six
26. Don't Get Around Much More
27. Who
28. Boogie Woogie
29. Roses of Picardy

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Ben Webster   Primary Artist,Piano,Soloist,Sax (Tenor)
Oscar Peterson   Primary Artist,Soloist,Piano
Ed Thigpen   Guest Artist,Drums
Ray Brown   Guest Artist,Bass,Piano,Soloist
Stan Levey   Drums
Alvin Stoller   Drums
Johnny Hodges   Soloist,Sax (Alto)
Harry "Sweets" Edison   Trumpet
Herb Ellis   Guitar
J.C. Heard   Drums
Barney Kessel   Guitar,Soloist
Benny Carter   Soloist,Sax (Alto)
Flip Phillips   Soloist,Sax (Tenor)
Charlie Shavers   Soloist,Trumpet
Charlie Parker   Soloist,Sax (Alto)

Technical Credits

David Mann   Composer
Jerome Kern   Composer
Ray Noble   Composer
Harold Arlen   Composer
Bob Hilliard   Composer
Chester Conn   Composer
Irving Berlin   Composer
Chester Cohn   Composer
Duke Ellington   Composer
Oscar Peterson   Performer
E.A. Swan   Composer
Haymes,   Composer
Harry "Sweets" Edison   Composer
Vincent Youmans   Composer
Hoagy Carmichael   Composer
Ted Koehler   Composer
Benny Carter   Performer
Benny Krueger   Composer
Ben Webster   Composer
Fred E. Ahlert   Composer
Mort Dixon   Composer
Einar A. Swan   Composer
Walter Donaldson   Composer
George Gershwin   Composer
Ira Gershwin   Composer
Lorenz Hart   Composer
Johnny Mercer   Composer
Jule Styne   Composer
Ned Miller   Composer,Composer
Ned Washington   Composer
Roy Turk   Composer
Ray Henderson   Composer
Norman Granz   Producer
Oscar Hammerstein II   Composer
E.Y. "Yip" Harburg   Composer
Richard Rodgers   Composer
Johnny Burke   Composer
Jules Stein   Composer
Bob Hillard   Composer
Stephen Frostberg   Liner Notes
Einar Aaron Swan   Composer
Frederick Edward Weatherly   Composer
Bennie Krueger   Composer
Richard Rodger   Composer