Reviews for Oscar Peterson Plays Standards - Piano Signature Licks (cd/pkg)

The average rating for Oscar Peterson Plays Standards - Piano Signature Licks (cd/pkg) based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-06-28 00:00:00 Steven Edwards This is a must read for musicologists and really, anyone who likes world history and/or world music or even just a variety of their own country's music (even if you live in India, for example). Who know that yodelling was found in so many places around the world with so many variation? Pygmies in Africa, Continental Europeans (and not just those living in the Alps), herds people in various parts of Asia and more yodel. You got it right, that epiglottal switch from chest to head voice (although in the Pygmies it is done somewhat differently) isn't restricted to the Swiss, Germans and American country music. Move over The Sound of Music and LeAann Rimes, because jazz, blues, classical and a number of other types of music share the joy (I have had a semi-secret desire to learn to yodel just for fun in the shower which led me to finding this book--I can hear my family's reaction now--"Mom, are you okay? Should we call 911?"). While I found this book, for my personal interests, ranged from high interest to utter boredom, there is a plethora of information, and not just the history--info about musicians, recordings and more, from old music right on up to avante garde. One of my favourite aspects of this is how music grows as people borrow from all over the place, that you can find elements of this in a surprising number of genres. Even Weird Al has done some yodeling in a few of his parodies. And, if you're not reading the for some reading game or challenge, you can just skip around and read whatever catches your interest. Perhaps it's time to break out of your reading comfort zone and read some obscure world history.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-12-31 00:00:00 Leesa Lowder [Placeholder] No, I'm not going to read this; I'm not a musician and can't read music. However, I apparently have a talent that some trained musicians probably don't have -- not that it matters much, but let me relate this: This has happened twice in the last month or so as I was listening to the local classical music radio station while in the car. The station was playing Tchaikovsky's 3rd Symphony. This is not one of his popular works, so recognizing it is not common. I don't listen to it much myself but through deduction narrowed it down to being either the 2nd or 3rd symphony (he wrote 6 and part of a 7th). I knew the 3rd had a non-standard 5 movements, which this did, so that nailed that. Then, and here's the kicker, I tried to guess who was conducting the recording. I knew it was not a Russian orchestra or conductor because the reading was too sluggish, weighty and plain, without the spiky and springy flavor the Russians bring to their own music. So that was ruled out. I had heard some recordings in the past of Claudio Abbado and Riccardo Muti with American orchestras doing Tchaikovsky. I thought Muti's readings had some Russian tinge, or at least color, so I ruled him out and settled on Abbado. I had guessed the work, and the conductor correctly. And this not the first time. I'm bragging on myself because not one in a million people could do this. -kr/eg '19