Over the years Oscar Peterson recorded many albums with his trio, but also several trio albums with guest stars. We open and close this episode with two example of these guest appearances, the first of which is the classy Ben Webster, who never found a lick he couldn't swing. Of course Oscar, Ray, and Ed had no trouble keeping up.

Our second set is hard bop through and through begining with a cut that shows why Dave Bailey was always such a popular sideman, albeit only rarely recorded under his own name. Continuing with the groove is Benny Carter who was a mere 80 years at the time showed us musical muturity at its finest, even though he would record yet again years later. Bill Charlap explores the pen of Leonard Bernstein, this time from West Side Story, with a creative romp through America.

In the third set we dig some acid jazz and hip hop rhythms that sought to reinterpret and expand the classic jazz sound along with some Latin Jazz driven by South of the Border rhythms. In each case, and for different reasons, each of these tracks are very contemporary, yet very classic in their approach and sensibilities.

Closing out the hour we hear from the conquerer himself with a track that could have easily been the mid 1950s or mid-2000s but was recorded in the mid-1980s. Billy Pierce embodies the classic and modern simultaneously, as does great jazz all of the time. Finally, we hear another guest appearance from an Oscar Peterson date with an interprepretation of a well worn tune, yet we hear a fresh interpretation from the gang. After all, the chart is only "old" if you play it without any "new" ideas.

As we are reaching the centenial of the first jazz recordings, it is inspiring to hear so much of the jazz foundation from decades ago still firmly in place. The classic Blue Note Records lable is now three-quarters of a century old and some of our current masters have been performing five decades or longer. Granted many of the first masters of this art have passed on, yet there is a vibrant community of musicians that continue driving this art form forward in new directions while paying homage to those who came before. Perhaps some day someone will sample US3 in their new mix, thus stacking the quotations even deeper, and ensuring that the music spoken by the masters of this art form will never be forgotten. It's just like classic literature, the story never ends so long as people continue to read, or in the case listen.