There are people who don’t like jazz, or at least say they don’t like jazz. And I get that. Some of it (probably the kind they mean when saying they don’t like it) can be very demanding, hard to listen to, and not particularly musical. Avant-garde, hard bop, Kenny G — they require a lot of mental discipline and patience to get inside where the music is going, if it’s going anyplace at all. Often, it’s for the players and not the listeners — a vehicle for them to show off their skill, express their discontent with more traditional musical forms, or just to stand up and say something.
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At the opposite end of the scale is what one could call “MuzakJazz” (see name above). Jazz, or let’s be honest and call it “pop instrumental,” is made just to be in the background; it’s filler, not challenging in any respect, and because of that, not particularly interesting or deserving of attention.
Somewhere in the vast middle are the virtuosos, the players with extraordinary chops who want to show them off, but also know that they are making music for people to enjoy and share. They want people to appreciate what they are playing, to hear the exchanges between band members that jazz uniquely lends itself to.
Two of the best who rose above their peers to legendary status were Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson and trumpeter/flugelhornist Clark Terry. Peterson, who passed in 2007, has released more than 200 recordings with many of the greats of jazz from the 50’s and forward. He won eight Grammys over his career, along with numerous other awards. American-born Clark Terry, who passed in 2015, appeared on over 900 recordings, was with The Tonight Show band for a decade, and pioneered bringing the flugelhorn into the jazz world.
Both of these extraordinary players had vast experience playing with big bands, in ensembles and quartets, but for this record, they paired it down to just the two: piano and horn, which gives the record an intimate feeling, and leaves lots of room for each to take the lead on numerous occasions.
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That, combined with the choice of tunes (mostly well-known standards with a couple of new originals written for the session), gives this set of eight a familiar feeling from the very first song, which is the well-known Frank Loesser composition “On a Slow Boat to China." Other standards “Satin Doll” (which is a personal all-time favorite), “Makin’ Whoopee” and “But Beautiful” offer the duo a familiar framework for them to each take turns interpreting the music in a playful and respectful way, nothing feels rushed or crowded, and you can tell they were having a great time, particularly on the closer “Mack The Knife” which is taken at a break neck speed with both Peterson and Terry playing like madmen — Mack the Knife meets Flight of the Bumble Bee??
One other thing that really makes this pairing work is Terry playing, for the most part, a muted horn. It would have been easy for the horn to overpower the light touch Peterson has at the keys, but that is never a worry; you hear every note from each instrument perfectly clearly, perfectly played.
This record is just fun! It is a joy to hear these two together, to hear the old tunes given a new playful (but bopping serious) treatment, and to admire the sheer talent of two people at the top of their game.
In a previous life at a previous public radio station, I spent a couple of years doing the evening jazz shift from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. — five hours a night, five nights a week. I will freely admit going in that I didn’t know a ton about jazz when I started (fake it till ya make it!), but I sure did when I left. Between the air shift and recording dozens of live jazz concerts around town, I got to be a real fan, to understand the different time periods of the music, not to mention the different locations (West Coast jazz was nothing like East Coast, or Brazilian, or… you get the idea). What I liked best were the live shows, when you could watch how the players interacted, when they knew it was their time to take a solo, when they knew to hand it off, how they handled interplay of the instruments, that’s one of the things that makes great jazz, and one of the things that makes this record the gem it remains 50 years after its’ release.
Jazz is remarkably timeless. This release could come out today and sound just as fresh and vibrant as it did in 1975 – but I think it would be difficult to find two players like this in 2025. Good thing we have the recording to enjoy.
