On his 16th birthday, Andrew Litton received an LP of Oscar Peterson playing solo. Litton was ‘hooked’, to use his own term: ‘If I’ve ever experienced anything close to an epiphany, this was it!’

When he started to come across transcriptions of Peterson’s improvisations, Litton began collecting and learning them himself. He started with one of his personal favourites, Richard Rodgers’ Little Girl Blue, using it as an encore when making appearances as a pianist. As he kept learning new improvisations, what Litton himself describes as ‘a dream’ took shape – to record his own performances of some of these transcriptions as a tribute to his hero.

Litton’s preparations for this very special recording have only helped to deepen his admiration for Peterson: ‘He did things daily at the piano while spontaneously improvising that the rest of us spend a lifetime trying to achieve.’

Litton has made many recordings with BIS (most notably as chief conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra) and is a highly esteemed and sought-after musician.

Contents:
1. Lulu’s back in town (Harry Warren)
2. ‘Round midnight (Thelonius Monk/Cootie Williams)
3. Body and soul (Johnny Green)
4. A child is born (Thad Jones)
5. Little girl blue  (Richard Rodgers)
6. Take the ‘A’ train (Billy Strayhorn)
7. Basin street blues (Spencer Williams)
8. How long has this been going on (George Gershwin)
9. The nearness of you (Hoagy Carmichael)
10. Over the Rainbow (Harold Arlen)
11. Things ain’t what they used to be (Mercer Ellington)
12. Perdido (Juan Tizol)