Oscar Peterson

PERSONNEL:

OSCAR PETERSON, piano
JIRI MRAZ, bass
LOUIS HAYES, drums

THE SINGERS UNLIMITED
Gene Puerling
Don Shelton
Len Dresslar
Bonnie Herman

New York, July 1971

TRACKS:

01. Sesame Street
02. It Never Entered in My Mind
03. Childrens Game
04. A Child Is Born
05. The Shadow of Your Smile
06. Catherine
07. Once Upon A Summertime
08. Here's That Rainy Day

Masterful piano playing meets up with elaborate vocal harmony in this legendary MPS summit meeting from the label’s early period. Oscar Peterson, MPS head Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer’s long-time friend and collaborator, along with Peterson’s colleagues, bassist George Mraz and drummer Louis Hayes, act as the counterweights to the vocal architects from Chicago. Peterson himself instigated the first contact between the Schwarzwald studio and The Singers Unlimited (TSU). That contact developed into a fruitful decade-long relationship; the Villingen studio’s superb technology perfectly suited the sophisticated requirements of vocal artist and leader Gene Puerling. Recorded in 1971, “In Tune” was TSU’s first album on MPS. It feeds off the languages of the two musical poles, whether it’s in the swinging give and take of the opener, “Sesame Street”, or in the switch from the reverential orchestrally-layered choir intro to Peterson’s sparkling play on “It Never Entered My Mind”. It’s the same with the dreamy arrangement of “The Shadow of Your Smile”; in his role as delicate accompanist, Peterson narrows it down to the essentials. Peterson and TSU soprano Bonnie Herman take improvisatory strolls together in the nostalgic Michel Legrand ballad “Once Upon a Summertime”. Two Brazilian excursions are highlighted: In Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Children’s Game” TSU delivers polysyllabic ornamentation to Peterson’s rollicking waltz whimsy; in Luis Bonfá‘s “The Gentle Rain”, Peterson plays around with the amative choral