3 Smokin’ Offerings from Verve

News, From the Magazine, Oscar Peterson, Alice Coltrane, Wes Montgomery

By DownBeat I Apr. 18, 2023

Verve/UMe’s Acoustic Sounds Series continues to deliver with a trio of great new albums and plenty more to come.

In February, the label reissued the Oscar Peterson Trio’s Night Train, a romp through the American Songbook from the title track to “I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good.” It also presents Peterson’s “Hymn To Freedom,” which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. Add Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums and you’ve got pure magic.

In March, the label released the grooving Alice Coltrane album Journey In Satchidananda, featuring saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. First released in 1971, the music sounds as fresh as today.

And, in April, the label unleashes Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio’s 1965 live recording Smokin’ At The Half Note, a blistering affair released, in part, to celebrate the centennial of Montgomery’s birth on March 6. All releases in the series have been mastered in stereo from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl. DB

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