Ella Fitzgerald / Oscar Peterson Trio

Callaghanmichael Us Feb 20, 2022

By John S. Wilson
Two of the most highly developed techniques in the jazz world were on display Monday night at the Wall man Rink in Central Park— the piano technique of Oscar Peterson and the vocal technique of Ella Fitzgerald.

Mr. Peterson has not been heard in New York for several years. But, joining in the Schaefer Music Festival on Monday, he showed that his fingers were as fast and strong as ever as he built performances that went running, running, running up and down the keyboard.

There were touches of rolling, easy rhythm to offset the relentlessness of his high ly charged attack. But the most effective balancing voice in his program was provided by George Morath, his bassist, who set up some effective countermelodies that brought Mr. Peterson down to a less hectic level than he usually plays on and, as a consequence, introduced some welcome shading to his performance.

Miss Fitzgerald, from whose voice notes flow as fluently as they do from Mr. Peterson's piano, was in high spirits and exceptionally fine fettle. In successive numbers, she summed up brilliantly two extremes of her unique manner of vocalizing—a “Body and Soul” that was a masterpiece of subtly built variations that took her from the very top to the rich, strong bottom of her range, and a slam‐bang, eruptive version of “Mas Que Nada” full of clicks, shouts and mutters that came on like a happy Saturday night brawl.

Spotting Benny Goodman in the audience at the first of the evening's two shows, Miss Fitzgerald sang a song she had recorded with his band in 1936, “Good Night, My Love.” Since this is not a song that she would have had much occasion to sing during the last 35 years, it was a remarkable display of total recall on her part and alert ad‐lib backing by the Tommy Flanagan trio.