Plays the Richard Rodgers Songbook in Bloomington, MN

In the 1950s and early '60s, producer
Norman Granz
perfected the songbook approach to album production by having vocalist
Ella Fitzgerald
interpret large segments of the standard jazz repertoire. In a frankly stated effort to expand the listening audience for this great body of work,
Granz
also asked Canadian pianist
Oscar Peterson
to churn out numerous instrumental songbooks albums under his own name with various combos. By the end of the decade, these included
Oscar
's newly reconfigured trio with bassist
Ray Brown
and drummer
Ed Thigpen
. Like its companion albums,
Peterson
's
Richard Rodgers Song Book
was never intended as a set of exercises in soul-searching profundity. Instead what you get are simple, straightforward, well-played appreciations of great American songwriting. Most of the melodies on this album resulted from
Rodgers
' extraordinary collaborative relationship with lyricist
Lorenz Hart
, and a couple of
Oscar Hammerstein
numbers were thrown in as well. Those who enjoy this pleasant offering may wish to investigate
's songbook salutes to
Duke Ellington
,
Vincent Youmans
Harold Arlen
Irving Berlin
, and numerous others. ~ arwulf arwulf