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Track List

1 The Song Is You 02:25
    by Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II (T. B. Harms Co.)
2 Blue Moon 02:54
    by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart (Robbins Music Corporation)
3 Without a Song 02:53
    by Vincent Youmans, William Rose, Edward Eliscu (Vincent Youmans, Inc.)
4 The Lady Is a Tramp 02:54
    by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart (Chappell & Co., Inc.)
5 I Want to Be Happy 05:34
    by Vincent Youmans, Irving Caesar (Harms, Inc.)
6 Lover 07:15
    by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart (Famous Music Corporation)
7 I Only Have Eyes for You 04:08
    by Harry Warren, Al Dubin (Remick Music Corp.)
8 I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues 05:05
    by Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler (Warner Bros., Inc.)
9 You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby 04:05
    by Harry Warren, Johnny Mercer (Remick Music Corp.)
10 Come Rain or Come Shine 04:26
    by Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer (A-M Music Corporation)
11 I Can't Give You Anything But Love 05:24
    by Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields (Jack Mills, Inc. / Mills Music)

Total Time: 47:03

About In Hollywood

The recordings gathered here document Oscar Peterson's piano-guitar-bass trio during two important periods in the development of the group: late 1953, when the partnership with guitarist Herb Ellis was taking shape, and November 1954, when Peterson, Ellis and bassist Ray Brown were working together as an established trio.

By this time Peterson had already spent several years building his career. Born in Montreal in 1925, he had begun performing professionally while still young and had become known throughout Canada through club appearances and radio broadcasts. His international career developed rapidly after Norman Granz heard him in Montreal in 1949 and invited him to appear with Jazz at the Philharmonic.

Peterson's relationship with Ray Brown had begun before the trio represented on these recordings took its familiar form. Brown had been part of the New York bebop scene since moving there in 1945 and had worked with musicians including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. His association with Norman Granz brought him into contact with Peterson, and the two musicians developed a close musical partnership.

In 1952, guitarist Barney Kessel joined Peterson and Brown, creating a piano-guitar-bass trio. Kessel remained with Peterson for a little over a year. During 1953, Herb Ellis replaced him as guitarist. Ellis had already worked extensively in swing and small-group settings, and his approach to the guitar provided Peterson and Brown with a new musical combination.

The December 1953 sessions in Los Angeles belong to this transition. On December 7, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, Peterson, Ellis and Brown recorded a substantial group of standards, including The Song Is You, Blue Moon, Without a Song, The Lady Is a Tramp, and Lover. The repertoire reflected Peterson's continuing interest in the American popular-song tradition, while the trio setting allowed all three musicians to share melodic, rhythmic and harmonic responsibilities.

The following session, on December 10, produced I Want to Be Happy. The track forms part of the same body of 1953 trio recordings and was subsequently issued on the Clef album Oscar Peterson Plays Vincent Youmans.

These recordings were made at a time when Peterson's career was becoming increasingly international. He was no longer simply a Canadian radio and club musician. Through Jazz at the Philharmonic and Norman Granz's recording activities, he was becoming a regular presence on the American jazz scene.

The trio format itself was particularly important. Without a drummer, the bass and guitar were able to participate continuously in the harmonic and rhythmic conversation with the pianist. Peterson could move between melodic lines, chords and bass-register figures, while Ellis and Brown supplied harmonic direction and rhythmic movement. The result was a compact ensemble in which the three instruments could operate with considerable independence.

The trio's repertoire was also closely connected with Peterson's work for the series of Clef albums devoted to individual composers. The December 1953 recordings contributed to several of these projects, including albums devoted to the music of Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, and Vincent Youmans. JazzDisco documents the same personnel across these sessions and the subsequent Clef releases.

The second group of recordings dates from November 1954, when Peterson, Ellis and Brown returned to Radio Recorders in Hollywood. During the sessions of November 15 and 16 they recorded extensive collections of songs associated with Harry Warren, Harold Arlen and Jimmy McHugh. The titles represented here include I Only Have Eyes for You, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues, Come Rain or Come Shine, and I Can't Give You Anything But Love.

By this point the Peterson–Ellis–Brown combination had become firmly established. The guitarist's role was not simply to reinforce the harmony supplied by the piano. Ellis could answer Peterson's phrases, provide rhythmic figures, and take an active part in shaping the movement of the trio. Brown similarly connected the harmonic and rhythmic structures, giving the ensemble a stable foundation while responding to the other two musicians.

The November 1954 sessions also demonstrate the breadth of Peterson's songbook approach. Rather than restricting the trio to one style or repertoire, the sessions moved freely through Broadway and Hollywood songs, ballads, swing standards and blues-influenced material. The same musicians could accommodate the contrasting character of I Only Have Eyes for You, I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues, and I Can't Give You Anything But Love within the same general trio format.

The development of the trio continued through the remainder of the decade. Peterson, Ellis and Brown toured extensively and recorded frequently for the labels connected with Norman Granz. Their work became one of the important examples of the guitar-piano-bass trio in postwar jazz, and their recordings helped establish this instrumentation as a flexible alternative to the more common piano-bass-drums format.

The performances presented here therefore capture the group at two closely connected stages. The December 1953 recordings document the period when Herb Ellis was replacing Barney Kessel and becoming part of Peterson's regular trio. The November 1954 recordings show the same three musicians working together in a mature and increasingly familiar format.

These sessions also illustrate Peterson's approach to repertoire. The songs were drawn largely from the established American popular tradition, but the trio treated them as material for improvisation and interaction. Melody, harmony and rhythm could all be reshaped within the structure of a familiar song, while the compact instrumentation left considerable space for each musician.

The recordings preserve a specific moment in the history of the Oscar Peterson Trio: Oscar Peterson at the piano, Herb Ellis on guitar, and Ray Brown on bass, working in the Los Angeles studios that were central to Norman Granz's recording activities. The combination would remain together for several more years, leaving a substantial body of recordings before Ellis departed the trio in 1958.

EU Public Domain Notice
The historical sound recordings included in this release are in the public domain in the European Union. Blue Music Group has created a new digital restoration and mastering of these historical recordings. The digital restoration and mastering by Blue Music Group are protected by applicable copyright and related rights. Rights may differ in other territories, including the United States. This release is not intended for distribution in the United States.

Cover artwork: The original photographic image has been legally assessed as being in the public domain in the EU following the expiry of the applicable 50-year term under Section 49a. The image has been restored, enhanced and colorized by Blue Music Group. © Blue Music Group. All rights reserved.

Credits

Oscar Peterson – piano
Herb Ellis – guitar
Ray Brown – bass

Tracks 1–4, 6:
Radio Recorders, Hollywood, Los Angeles
December 7, 1953

Track 5:
Los Angeles
December 10, 1953

Tracks 7–10:
Radio Recorders, Hollywood, Los Angeles
November 15, 1954

Track 11:
Radio Recorders, Hollywood, Los Angeles
November 16, 1954

Note: The session documentation places Lover on December 7, 1953, despite some later catalogue listings giving 1954. The original session/matrix documentation supports 1953.