Oscar Peterson Trio + Clark Terry - Oscar Peterson Trio + One (1972 Japanese Fontana Stereo Vinyl LP)

Oscar Peterson Trio + Clark Terry - Oscar Peterson Trio + One | Vinyl LP - 1972 Japanese Fontana Stereo Reissue (BT-2002, Nippon Phonogram)

When Oscar Peterson's long run on Verve ended at the start of 1964, he moved to Mercury, and one of the first things he cut there was this meeting between his trio and the trumpeter Clark Terry. The trio was as good as any he ever led: Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums, two players who had been locked in together for years, behind Peterson's fast, two-handed piano. Terry brought a warm flugelhorn tone and a sly sense of humour honed in the Ellington and Basie bands. Norman Granz produced the date in New York in August 1964. Most of the record is bright, swinging mainstream jazz, standards like "Mack The Knife" and "Brotherhood Of Man" next to Peterson blues such as "Blues For Smedley". The two tracks everyone remembers are Terry's: "Mumbles" and "Incoherent Blues", where he sets the horn aside and sings a bluesy, mumbling scat of pure nonsense.

"Mumbles" caught on far beyond the album and became Clark Terry's calling card, a bit he would trot out for the rest of his career. But the record is more than its novelty turn. It is two masters plus one of the great rhythm sections having an easy, generous time, the kind of swinging mainstream jazz that never dates, and it has stayed a favourite for exactly that reason.

This is the 1972 Japanese pressing on Fontana and Mercury, part of Nippon Phonogram's Jazz Collection series, and a good-sounding one: owners of this cut single out its warm, clean analogue sound.