The Oscar Peterson Trio-Night Train (1963)

Canadian Oscar Peterson is one of the legends of modern music. He managed to bring jazz to a wider audience like almost no one else, thanks to his remarkable ability to musically synthesize a style that had previously been reserved for a select and small public. Born in Montreal in 1925, he was already a talented child playing piano and trumpet at just five years old. Thanks to his classical music studies, young Oscar showed a keen interest in swing, bebop, and boogie-woogie. Influenced by the great Art Tatum, by the late 1940s he was already a renowned musician thanks to his impressive technique and improvisational skills on the piano. During those years, he released his first recordings on labels like Victor Records, and collaborated with jazz legends such as Louis Armstrong, Stan Getz, Joe Pass, Count Basie, and Ella Fitzgerald, among many others. During the 1950s, his trios were among the most sought-after and famous groups in the jazz world, and it was precisely the trio he formed with Ray Brown (bass) and Thigpen (drums) that recorded one of the most emblematic albums of modern jazz: "Night Train", released in 1963 on the Verve label. This recording showcases Peterson's captivating playing style, revealing him at the height of his career as an absolutely masterful pianist. Pieces like the bebop "Bag's Groove", the leisurely "Night Train", the rhythmic "C-Jam Blues", the heartfelt "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)", and the bluesy "Band Call",  reflect the excellence of the Oscar Peterson Trio on an album considered one of the masterpieces of jazz of all time.