by Ken DrydenThis live set from the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival features the Oscar Peterson Trio and a few special guests. The first side of the record is exclusively devoted to the trio, kicking off with a lively take of Will You Still Be Mine? Peterson salutes Clifford Brown (who died in an automobile accident the previous year) by playing the late trumpeter's Joy Spring (while oddly introducing it as Joyous Spring), but taking it at a more leisurely ballad tempo. Both Herb Ellis and Ray Brown comes to the forefront in Gal From Calico. The group is expanded to a sextet with the addition of Sonny Stitt, Roy Eldridge, and Jo Jones on side two. Stitt and Eldridge collaborated to create the powerful Monitor Blues (which is full of Eldridge's high-note theatrics) and the blazing finale Roy's Son. The trumpeter's individual feature with the rhythm section is a blues-drenched rendition of Willow Weep for Me, while the tenor saxophonist takes his place on an inspired romp through Autumn in New York. Although this excellent Verve LP was reissued on at least one occasional during the vinyl era, it has yet to appear on CD.