Oscar Peterson was one of the most brilliant and distinctive modern jazz pianists to come to the fore in the post-war era, as adventurous small-group music and virtuoso soloists established new strands of jazz in the wake of the demise of the big swing bands as post-war austerity took hold and public tastes evolved. Initially making his mark in his native Canada, he made his first records for RCA in Montreal, but soon captured the attention of jazz impresario Norman Granz and within a few years was recording under his auspices for Clef/Mercury in New York. This great-value 47-track 2-CD collection specifically addresses those early years, and comprises studio recordings in trio, quartet and duo settings with a variety of line-ups, performing well-known Great American Songbook standards which were the staple repertoire of jazz improvisers in that era along with original compositions. The recordings come from ten different recording sessions, and feature trio and quartet recordings with bassists Bert Brown, Albert King & Austin Roberts, drummers Frank Gariepy, Roland Verdon, Russ Dufort, Mark Wilkinson & Clarence Jones, and guitarists Armand Sampson & Ben Johnson, plus recordings as a duo with bass players Ray Brown and Major Holley. It's an entertaining showcase for the already highly developed talent of one of the great piano stylists of the genre, and offers an insight into how his music evolved during the key formative years of his career.

Born 25th August, 1925 in Montreal, Canada, Oscar Emmanuel Peterson grew up in Little Burgundy, a predominantly black neighbourhood in greater Quebec. He took up piano and trumpet at age five, quickly becoming adept on both instruments. At seven he was diagnosed with tuberculosis which prevented him from playing the trumpet, he thus concentrated on the piano during this time, practising four to six hours a day. Studying under the Hungarian-born player Paul de Marky - himself a student of virtuoso Istvan Thoman - the young Oscar began learning classical piano but later switched to jazz styles, most notably 'boogie-woogie'. By 1961, with the piano-bass-drums line up now firmly established, the OPT performed a week's residency at The London House, a renowned jazz spot in Chicago. These performances were among the finest the new line-up ever gave, and were released on Verve as four separate albums; The Trio, Something Warm, The Sound Of The Trio and Put On A Happy Face, in '61 and early '62. The following year, Peterson's most commercially successful record Night Train (Verve, 1963), was released, another Trio masterpiece that due to it's shorter track times, received considerable radio play. Oscar Peterson's extraordinary career spanned more than 60 years during which time he won eight Grammys among a host of other awards and honours, and played on over 200 albums. His live repertoire was equally impressive and the great man remains among the most respected jazz musicians of all time. This 4CD collection brings together eight of Oscar Peterson's finest albums, all recorded for the esteemed Verve label during his heyday in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A dynamic introduction to Peterson's best work, this box set equally serves as a welcome reminder for those already familiar.