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<DIV>Fred Astaire and Oscar Peterson, "The Astaire Story" (Verve, two
discs). </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>by Jeff Simon</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Buffalo News, October 12, 2017</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This, from 1952, is one of the greatest packages in the history of recorded
jazz. And all the music from it is here on this reissue, including two bonus
tracks -- an alternate of "I Won't Dance" and a second version of the
astonishing Astaire-less prestissimo rocket blues by Oscar Peterson that served
as the set's "Overture." I still think that bids fair to be the fastest tempo
you will ever hear on a jazz record. And I'll bet Astaire loved it introducing
him, considering how buttoned up Oscar had to be elsewhere on their
collaboration.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Songwriters loved Astaire so much that many considered him their favorite
singer of their own works. That's because Astaire loved singing songs absolutely
straight with every word coming across and with Astaire's ingratiating
personality putting everything across.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>To have him appear in two hours and 14 minutes of music with Norman Granz's
Jazz at the Philharmonic bunch was one of the great musical meetings on American
records (almost up there with Granz's mating on record of Ella Fitzgerald and
Louis Armstrong.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But this eternal classic -- whose music couldn't possibly be recommended
more highly -- does one terrible thing that Verve is doing more and more often
these days on some of its greatest past music: it eliminates all the written
disc notes. So you won't know who's in this astonishing band: Peterson on piano,
Flip Phillips on tenor saxophone, Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Barney Kessel on
guitar, Ray Brown on bass, and Alvin Stoller on drums.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As long as American music exists, this will always be a classic.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>4 stars (out of four) for music, 1.5 stars for packaging.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>?-30Fred Astaire and Oscar Peterson, "The Astaire Story" (Verve, two
discs). </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>by Jeff Simon</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Buffalo News, October 12, 2017</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This, from 1952, is one of the greatest packages in the history of recorded
jazz. And all the music from it is here on this reissue, including two bonus
tracks -- an alternate of "I Won't Dance" and a second version of the
astonishing Astaire-less prestissimo rocket blues by Oscar Peterson that served
as the set's "Overture." I still think that bids fair to be the fastest tempo
you will ever hear on a jazz record. And I'll bet Astaire loved it introducing
him, considering how buttoned up Oscar had to be elsewhere on their
collaboration.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Songwriters loved Astaire so much that many considered him their favorite
singer of their own works. That's because Astaire loved singing songs absolutely
straight with every word coming across and with Astaire's ingratiating
personality putting everything across.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>To have him appear in two hours and 14 minutes of music with Norman Granz's
Jazz at the Philharmonic bunch was one of the great musical meetings on American
records (almost up there with Granz's mating on record of Ella Fitzgerald and
Louis Armstrong.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But this eternal classic -- whose music couldn't possibly be recommended
more highly -- does one terrible thing that Verve is doing more and more often
these days on some of its greatest past music: it eliminates all the written
disc notes. So you won't know who's in this astonishing band: Peterson on piano,
Flip Phillips on tenor saxophone, Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Barney Kessel on
guitar, Ray Brown on bass, and Alvin Stoller on drums.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As long as American music exists, this will always be a classic.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>4 stars (out of four) for music, 1.5 stars for packaging.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>-30</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000"><BR><BR>Bob
Ringwald piano, Solo, Duo, Trio, Quartet, Quintet <BR>Fulton Street Jazz Band
(Dixieland/Swing)<BR>916/ 806-9551<BR>Amateur (ham) Radio Station
K6YBV<BR><BR>When giving directions to Joe Garagiola to his New Jersey home,
which is accessible<BR>by two routes:<BR>"When you come to a fork in the road,
take it."<BR>Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra, B5-12-1925,
D9-22-2015<BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><div id="DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2">
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