Despite the excellence of Oscar Peterson’s enormous output on Norman Granz’s Verve label, his playing seemed to reach full maturity in the 1970s, a period when he was recording for the German MPS label. His technical command, invention and rhythmic drive that had attracted so much attention in the 1950s and 1960s truly blossomed during the 1970s, as the Exclusively For My Friends series on MPS documents in almost perfect recorded fidelity. Thus virtually everything he recorded for the label is of interest today, but a collaboration with The Singers Unlimited? Well, Peterson thought highly of the group and it was on his recommendation MPS recorded them, beginning with In Tune where he lent his name to kickstart their jazz career, which had largely been based on singing TV and radio commercials. The group’s ear-catching four-part harmonies were arranged by Gene Puerling (formerly the leader of the Hi-Lo’s, of which Don Shelton was also a member). The question today is whether the vocal quartet, despite their undisputed excellence, was a good fit for Peterson’s trio. Perhaps seldom commented was that Peterson was an accompanist par excellence, as he had earlier demonstrated with singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Here he gives Singers Unlimited the Rolls Royce treatment – this is really a shared endeavour – the mood one of cooperation rather than competition. After the exuberant opener ‘Sesame Street’, the remainder of the album is given over to thoughtful treatments of class ballads, with Peterson gracefully moving through Puerling’s exotic harmonies on pieces such as ‘It Never Entered My Mind’, ‘Children’s Game’ and ‘Gentle Rain’. The album highlight is Thad Jones’ ‘A Child Is Born’ that features SU’s inch perfect legato phrasing, glissandos and melismatic slides. After this album of classy mood music with Peterson, The Singers Unlimited went on to record a further 13 albums during a 10-year association with the label that were reissued as Magic Voices, a 7CD box set, in 1997.