Search - Oscar Peterson :: Debut: The Clef/Mercury Duo Recordings 1949-1951

Debut uncovers Oscar Peterson's first U.S. recordings, an underappreciated and hardly-compiled segment of his brilliant career, when he simply played and improvised backed by two of the greatest standup bassists of all time - Ray Brown and Major "Mule" Holley - in the brief period before he settled into his world-renowned trio format. It's is a 3-CD box set that includes all of the Mercury singles that would later be released as the Clef and Verve LPs Tenderly, Keyboard, and An Evening With Oscar Peterson, plus several stray tracks that appeared on various formats. Debut begins with Oscar's literal U.S. debut: a live recording from Carnegie Hall when the 24-year-old pianist, pretending to be an audience member, got up on stage to perform for an American audience for the first time. He returned to Carnegie Hall a year later; all of those rare live sides are included here, as well as a newly-discovered, unreleased live performance of "Tea For Two" and an unreleased studio version of "There's A Small Hotel."