Oscar Peterson: Nigerian Marketplace

What began as Oscar Peterson's single-song tribute to then-imprisoned South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela culminated in a major composition entitled Africa Suite. Peterson performed "Nigerian Marketplace," the suite's first-ever recorded movement, at 1981's Montreux Jazz Festival. The ambitious piece, building on Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen's serpentine but resonant basslines, features several intriguing rhythmic changes, and is distinguished throughout for its haunting melody and driving power. The audience was clearly enthralled, and understandably so.