''Night Train'' is an album by the

Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian virtuoso jazz pianist and composer. Considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards ...

Trio, released in 1963 by

Verve Records Verve Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simon ...

Background

Album producer

Norman Granz Norman Granz (August 6, 1918 – November 22, 2001) was an American jazz record producer and concert promoter. He founded the record labels Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, and Pablo. Granz was acknowledged as "the most successful impres ...

had sold the record label Verve, but remained Peterson's manager, and so supervised the ''Night Train'' recording session. The brief duration of many of the tracks has been attributed to a desire to have them played on

commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States′ first model of radio (a ...

, which was reluctant to play any tracks longer than a few minutes. The cover art photograph is by Pete Turner and original sleeve notes were by Benny Green. The album was dedicated to Peterson’s father, who worked as a sleeping-car attendant for Canadian Pacific Railways.

Music and recording

On the title track,

After the opening theme choruses, Peterson slips into a 2-chorus solo. Then the theme returns, and we realize that all the while, the band has gotten softer and softer. This leads into Brown's solo, which is unaccompanied to start, and then adds, in turn, Peterson and Thigpen. When Peterson comes in for another chorus of solo, everything starts to build again. Peterson plays a boogie figure in the bass to build the intensity, and then the trio plays a simple but effective shout chorus and then goes back to the theme with a strong crescendo to nearly the end, with a traditional Count Basie tag to close the track. By using the basic elements of crescendo and diminuendo, and arranged sections to set off the parts, Peterson turns what could have been a throwaway into a minor masterpiece.

On the 1997 CD reissue, an alternate take of "Night Train" carries the title "Happy Go Lucky Local," the name of the 1946 Duke Ellington composition that is the basis of Jimmy Forrest's "Night Train". The alternate take features the same arrangement as the master take.

Ed Thigpen Edmund Leonard Thigpen (December 28, 1930 – January 13, 2010) was an American jazz drummer, best known for his work with the Oscar Peterson trio from 1959 to 1965. Thigpen also performed with the Billy Taylor trio from 1956 to 1959. Biograp ...

's rivet cymbal, recorded at very close range, is prominent on all issues of the album.Katz, Dick (December 1996) D booklet in 1997 Verve re-issue/ref>

Reception

Writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, critic John Bush wrote the release "includes stately covers of blues and R&B standards". ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled b ...

'' included it in its core collection, calling it “one of the best-constructed long-players of the period"Cook, Richard and Morton, Brian (2008) ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings'' (9th ed.), Penguin, p. 1152-1153. and saying that Peterson's playing is "tight and uncharacteristically emotional". In 2019, the album was named as the jury winner of the Polaris Heritage Prize.

Influence

Diana Krall Diana Jean Krall (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide, including over six million in the US. On December 11, 2009, ''Billboard'' maga ...

reported that listening to the album made being a jazz pianist her ambition.Cunniffe, Thoma
"Oscar Peterson: Night Train"
. jazz.com. Retrieved June 30, 2015. Linda May Han Oh reported that listening to the album inspired her to start playing upright bass.

Track listing

(Tracks 12 through 17 are CD bonus tracks, not included on the original vinyl LP)

Personnel

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

* Ray Brown -

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

- drums

Technical personnel

– production *

Val Valentin Luis Pastor "Val" Valentin (January 6, 1920 – March 24, 1999) was an American recording engineer with six decades of work in the music industry. Much of his work was done for MGM Records and Verve Records. His large discography includes Jazz ...

– recording engineering * Pete Turner – cover photography * Benny Green - sleeve notes

References

Links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Night Train (Album) Oscar Peterson albums 1962 albums Verve Records albums Albums produced by Norman Granz