Description
On Motions & Emotions we experience piano giant Oscar Peterson jamming with jazz versions of 1960s pop and easy listening covers.
The 50-year-old album by Peterson and a studio orchestra is reissued here by German label MPS. Peterson was one of the most fluent jazz pianists. And this impeccably played session was orchestrated by Claus Ogerman, jazz and pop arranger who'd recently worked up a nice album of Bacharach tunes for saxophonist Stan Getz. But Ogerman plus Peterson edges closer to tinkling piano cocktail hour.
"In the 1960s, lots of respectable jazz musicians covered AM radio hits. But it wasn't always a good fit. In fairness, the Beatles tunes Oscar Peterson does here, 'Yesterday' and 'Eleanor Rigby,' had string sections even on the Beatle versions. Still, the line between good taste and bad gets blurry here. Oscar Peterson sounds a bit ambivalent himself. The Pianist may noodle his way through a melody, laying low till a tune's second half. Once he gets going, he doesn't need the orchestra's help. But that doesn't mean he won't get it," — npr.org
