Music Review: Oscar Pettiford - Lost Tapes

By Jack Goodstein, BLOGCRITICS.ORG
Published 12:14 pm, Monday, May 20, 2013

Bebop bassist Oscar Pettiford made his reputation playing with many of the cutting edge jazz artists of the '40s and '50s.

An innovative force, his work with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and a host of other jazz giants is often credited with expanding and extending the melodic range and solo possibilities of an instrument more often than not limited to the rhythm section. Late in the '40s, while recovering from a broken arm, he added the cello to his repertoire. He was able to demonstrate its possibilities as a jazz instrument.

A few years before his death in 1960 when he had relocated to Europe, he did some recording in Germany with a varied cohort of European musicians and an American visitor or two, recordings now available under the title Lost Tapes in the Jazz Haus series. The album consists of studio recordings from 1958 and 1959 and a live recording from a December 1958 performance at Stadthalle Karlsruhe, a total of 16 songs in all, running over 73 minutes. It is an excellent album that makes a convincing case for Pettiford's achievement as an artist.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Music-Review-Oscar-Pettiford-Lost-Tapes-4531836.php#ixzz2UWbmg1Q9
Personnel:
Oscar Pettiford - Cello
Harry Babasin - Cello
Arnold Ross - Piano
Joe Comfort - Bass
Alvin Stoller- Drums

Recorded: Oakland Auditorium, Oakland , California June 27, 1953
(*Part of a telethon for cerebral palsy, broadcast on KGO-TV and KGO radio).