Oscar Peterson - Exclusively For My Friends: The Lost Tapes (LP)

Label: MPS Records – 529 096-1
Series: Exclusively For My Friends
Format: LP
Country: Germany
Released: 1995
Genre: Jazz

Tears of sorrow mingled with tears of joy as Oscar Peterson fans realized that the keyboard genius, who had just recovered his health, was still capable of amazing them all, although he had obivously forfited some of his past vitality. This may well have introduced MPS--the label with whom Oscar Peterson himself clamimed to have made his best recordings--to search their archives for lost tapes from Peterson's heydey. A number of previously unreleased recordings were discovered, which had been taped "exclusively for my friends" in the private studio in Villngen, 1965-1968. The electric atmosphere of these live sessions before a mere handful of listeners proves once again just how at home the musicians felt in the Black Forest villa--as is borne out by the fact that Peterson's usual trio formation alternated with his stand-in musicians of Sam Jones on the bass and Bobby Durham on the drums.