Ben Webster & Oscar Peterson - Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (1959/2014) [HDtracks]

Saxophonist Ben Webster is joined by legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. Webster, known for his association with Duke Ellington's Jazz Orchestra playing lead tenor, frequently played with Peterson in the 1950s and are joined here by some of the best jazz musicians of the time. Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson was originally released in 1959, and this studio album is a compilation of seven great jazz tracks, including "How Deep is the Ocean," "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," and "Bye, Bye, Blackbird".

Another fine Webster release on Verve that sees the tenor great once again backed by the deluxe Oscar Peterson Trio. In keeping with the high standard of their Soulville collaboration of two years prior, Webster and the trio -- Peterson is joined by bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen -- use this 1959 date to conduct a clinic in ballad playing. And while Soulville certainly ranks as one of the tenor saxophonist's best discs, the Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson set gets even higher marks for its almost transcendent marriage of after-hours elegance and effortless mid-tempo swing -- none of Webster's boogie-woogie piano work to break up the mood here. Besides reinvigorating such lithe strollers as "Bye Bye Blackbird" (nice bass work by Brown here) and "This Can't Be Love," Webster and company achieve classic status for their interpretation of the Sinatra gem "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning." And to reassure Peterson fans worried about scant solo time for their hero, the pianist lays down a healthy number of extended runs, unobtrusively shadowing Webster's vaporous tone and supple phrasing along the way. Not only a definite first-disc choice for Webster newcomers, but one of the jazz legend's all-time great records.