Oscar Peterson has stated that he feels his MPS recordings are his finest. That is quite a statement considering the huge amount of records that the pianist has produced through the past 50 years. This four-CD set reissues the music from six of his MPS LPs:
Action, Girl Talk,
The Way I Really Play,
My Favorite Instrument,
Mellow Mood, and
Travelin' On. While some of the performances feature the 1963 trio he had with bassist
Ray Brown and drummer
Ed Thigpen, most of the music dates from 1967-1968 and matches
Peterson with bassist
Sam Jones and either
Louis Hayes or
Bobby Durham on drums. A special treat is
Peterson's first unaccompanied solo album, which fills up the final CD.
Peterson's many fans know what to expect in this set, while other listeners need to discover him to realize what all of the fuss was about. Quite simply,
Oscar Peterson has long been one of the greatest pianists the world has ever known; this reissue offers plenty of proof.