Search - Oscar Peterson :: Somebody Loves Me

Lacks Variety

Johnny Hodges | Clark Fork, ID United States | 12/19/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Musical Content: 3 stars

Recording Quality: 3 stars

Packaging: 2 stars

Bang for the Buck: 3 stars



The selections, recorded between 1950 & 1954, are mostly standards, and mostly 3-4 minutes. CD1, except for one track, are duets with bassist Austin Roberts. Most of CD2 is with the trio consisting of the impeccable Ray Brown on bass and Barney Kessel on guitar. There are a few longer tracks, giving Oscar a chance to stretch out a little, and featuring an uncredited Lester Young on tenor sax. Things pick up on CD3, where halfway through we suddenly get a beautiful "Bounce Blues" featuring Ben Webster on tenor. Then the remaining trio sides feature a more swinging Herb Ellis replacing Barney Kessel on guitar. CD4 is the best: most renditions stretching over 4 minutes. The last track really shines; a 15 minute jam on "What Is This Thing Called Love", featuring Charlie Parker, Charlie Shavers, Benny Carter, Flip Phillips, Ben Webster, Barney Kessel, Ray Brown, and J.C. Heard from Norman Granz's JATP "Charlie Parker Jam Session". But that there were more on here like that! But there is a chronic sameness to the variations on most of the standards on these CDs that fails to excite me. Nice renditions, they just seem too tame and predictable to my ears. The only time Oscar seems to really cut loose is on the 5 horn tracks. The rest seems a bit like jazz for people who don't really like jazz.



Sound quality is better than most Quadromania CDs, coming as it does from a later time period than most of them. Bass could be more solid, the better to hear Ray Brown with. And like most Q disks, the high end seems a bit dull, especially impacting the tracks with horns. The guitar seems too far pushed back in the mix on a lot of the trio sides. One of the Lester Young sides on CD2 is hideously distorted. I have the authorized JATP Parker Jam, and the Quadromania track suffers mightily by comparison.



The otherwise well-designed 4 disk jewel case frequently fails to hold the disks in place during transport. Documentation is limited to Title, Date, and musicians (no credit for Prez on CD2, though). No autobiographical or other information.



Some of the better tracks here are duplicated on the Ben Webster Quadromania CD. Recommend buying that instead of this."