When Oscar Peterson moved to the MPS label in the late 1960s, producer (and owner) Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer sought to place the virtuoso pianist in a variety of different contexts in order to separate and differentiate his work from Norman Granz’s Verve label (it’s what Granz did with Charlie Parker when he moved to Verve, recording him with strings and in Latin environments). Thus Peterson recorded with Singers Unlimited, with a big band and so on. Here Brunner-Schwer conjures up an orchestral backdrop arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman (Ogerman was a highly regarded jazz pianist on the Munich scene before moving to the US to make his fortune, incidentally). The orchestra was recorded by former Granz employee Val Valentin in New York in 1969, and the Peterson Trio overdubbed their parts in Brunner-Schwer’s studio (actually the living room of his not immodest home) in Villingen, Germany. Despite the liner note encomium by trumpet player Till Brönner and claims that this is Peterson at his best and might well be “the perfect instrumental album”, I beg to differ. The six album Exclusively For My Friends set for MPS argues otherwise, but after hearing Peterson performing ‘Ode to Billie Joe’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ or ‘Sally’s Tomato’ you might think otherwise.