Recording of the Week, Oscar Peterson Trio, 'On a Clear Day: Live in Zurich 1971'

As the year’s beginning to wind down, I thought it’d be a great chance to dig into a more historical album for this year’s Recording of the Week. Fresh from the vaults and released on CD and digital formats courtesy of Mack Avenue, On a Clear Day is a recording by the storied piano virtuoso Oscar Peterson, a titan of Canadian jazz known to his friends as ‘O.P.’ and by the wider jazz world as ‘The King Inside of Swing’. While Peterson’s long career is characterised by a wealth of solid recordings, he was also a prolific sideman, appearing on albums by Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton and Ella Fitzgerald (he’s even the pianist on her collaborative album Ella and Louis with Louis Armstrong).

Throughout his long career Peterson remained ever-fond of the jazz piano trio, but his eponymous band would appear in many different formations throughout the pianist’s lifetime. On a Clear Day, recorded on a Zurich date in 1971 during the midst of a world tour, finds Peterson with his longtime associate Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (commonly abbreviated as NHØP) on bass – who was still quite early into his time with Peterson when this recording was made – and Louis Hayes on drums, who was soon to be replaced by Bobby Durham.

Peterson, NHØP & Hayes in Germany, 1971 (Photo by Helmut Montag)

Peterson was known for his highly technical style of playing, and the rapturous applause at the end of the Benny Goodman tune ‘Soft Winds’ is well deserved, with Peterson leaping all across the keyboard throughout an intense extended improvisatory section towards the end of the 8-minute track after its more casually swinging opening. Elsewhere he also proves he could more than carry the performance with the solo opening of ‘Moritat von Mackie Messer’ (from The Threepenny Opera) – although that does make it all the more exciting when the other two band members come in and the tune kicks into high gear, with NHØP’s lightning-fast walking bass proving to be a dizzying addition to the tune, a fitting match to Peterson’s own dexterity. Similarly the Richard Rodgers tune ‘Younger than Springtime’ starts off a little more low-key, with the trio steadily bringing life to the tune as the tempo picks up; Peterson and co. have their dynamics down to a T.

The tune ‘Young and Foolish’ marks one of the album's more placid moments, but that doesn’t mean Peterson lets his guard down, peppering in short melodic sprinkles throughout each phrase. NHØP and Durham never miss a beat throughout, and Peterson’s fast playing style is served well by this rock-solid rhythm section; it’s him and Durham that get the crowd going in the opening track ‘The Lamp Is Low’ before Peterson himself enters, right up until the final enthusiastic applause at the end of the closing track ‘On the Trail’, which climaxes with a blazingly fast improvised section. On a Clear Day is supposedly the only recorded instance of the Peterson-Pedersen-Hayes trio playing live, so be sure to enjoy this rare treat.