Night Train [LP]

From the opening bars of the title track of this beautiful album, Oscar Peterson lays down the kind of piano playing for which he had been famous for well over a decade; the deftness of touch, the almost slight of hand, as he beguiles the listener into making it sound all too easy. Peterson talks through the piano and at his best he makes the piano sing. Just listen to 'Georgia On My Mind' who needs a vocal? While Peterson has at times, unfairly, been called an unemotional pianist, that is not a criticism that can be leveled at Night Train. It is a beautifully recorded album that makes the piano, long-time Peterson trio bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen sound as though they are in the room. Despite having sold Verve to MGM two years earlier, Norman Granz produced this album as he was Oscar Peterson's manager; it is a fitting tribute to both performer and mentor.