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| Play it again, Oscar Peterson Zenph's just released Unmistakable CD offers Oscar Peterson performances captured originally on video tape filmed years before the Mississauga pianist's death in 2007 at age 82. The new compilation is not a re-release, however. Each note of the CD's 16 tunes was digitally recreated in 2010 in London's Abbey Road studios and upgraded to meet today's sound standards. Oscar Peterson approved of the process now being used to keep his music sonically up-to-date. Zenph officials met with the pianist in his Erindale home in spring 2007 (he died later that year). Knowing that Peterson loved technology, the executives played him their re-performed work from Art Tatum, once Peterson's idol. Soon in tears, Peterson signed on. "We plan to do an Oscar Peterson concert show in Toronto with the original video synced to some of the music from the album, " says Walker. "We'll have some Art Tatum too. There'll be Art playing The Man I Love and then Oscar playing the same tune." Peterson fans who took in the five-part "Aspects of Oscar" tribute to him programmed by the Royal Conservatory of Music earlier this year in conjunction with Peterson's widow Kelly, have already had a taste of the Zenph experience. At the end of the last concert in that series, which featured trumpeter Roy Hargrove and tenor sax ace Ralph Moore, the musicians left the stage and a lone piano remained. Using the Zenph process, jazz lovers heard Peterson play once again. It was, in effect, "live piano playing by Oscar Peterson" Mervon Mehta, executive director of performing arts for the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) said at the time. In a press release at the time the Unmistakable CD was released, Zenph co-founder Walker said that, "we collaborated closely with the Peterson family and a superstar team of professionals to create this album. What we've achieved is nothing short of miraculous: one of the world's greatest jazz pianists, playing one of the world's finest instruments, recorded in the most famous recording studio on earth, Abbey Road. This is a high-water mark for our technology, and we are awestruck by the results." Other Zenph "re-performances" feature Glenn Gould, Peterson's piano idol Art Tatum, fiddler Joshua Bell, soprano Angela Gheorghiu with the late soprano Maria Callas and Sergei Rachmaninoff, the imposing composer who died in 1943. The lush Zenph recreation of a 1921 Rachmaninoff solo performance — barely listenable on an original scratchy disc or cylinder — gives full value to the pianist's legendary lyricism that's otherwise unimaginable to a contemporary audience. Zenph also points the way to the future for an underperforming record industry desperately recycling its past in box sets while simultaneously banking on downloads. "The sound quality on a Zenph CD" is superior to anything downloaded, says company president John Q. Walker although Zenph's roster is also available on iTunes. The North Carolina acoustic technology firm recently added arranger/producer Quincy Jones to its board. The Zenph process is not another form of "remastering" where imperfections on an original recording are erased. Zenph digitally samples everything musical on a recording — the pianist's pedalling and subtle playing along with the notes themselves — but not the surface imperfections. The data is then used to generate another performance on piano specifically built for the purpose. Zenph piano concerts feature an audience facing a stage where a fabulously expensive concert grand piano is thundering out a superb performance without any need for a live performer at the keyboard. It's the vintage player piano reborn. The Peterson Unmistakable CD consists of unreleased recordings Peterson made during the 70s and 80s. It's available at www.zenph.com. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Jazz News :: home page |