Oscar Emmanuel Peterson.docx

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC CQ OOnt (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, but simply "O.P." by his friends.[1][2] He released over 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, and received numerous other awards and honours. He is considered one of the greatest jazz pianists,[3] and played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years.

Biography[edit] Early years[edit] Peterson was born in Montreal, Quebec, to immigrants from the West Indies; his father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway.[4][5] Peterson grew up in the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal. It was in this predominantly black neighborhood that he encountered the jazz culture.[6] At the age of five, Peterson began honing his skills on trumpet and piano, but a bout of tuberculosis when he was seven prevented him from playing the trumpet again, so he directed all his attention to the piano. His father, Daniel Peterson, an amateur trumpeter and pianist, was one of his first music teachers, and his sister Daisy taught him classical piano. Peterson was persistent at practising scales and classical études. As a child, Peterson studied with Hungarian-born pianist Paul de Marky, a student of István Thomán, who was himself a pupil of Franz Liszt, so his early training was predominantly based on classical piano. But he was captivated by traditional jazz and boogie-woogie and learned several ragtime pieces. He was called "the Brown Bomber of the Boogie-Woogie".[7] At the age of nine Peterson played piano with a degree of control that impressed professional musicians. For many years his piano studies included four to six hours of daily practice. Only in his later years did he decrease his practice to one or two hours daily. In 1940, at fourteen years of age, he won the national music competition organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After that victory, he dropped out of the High School of Montreal, where he played in a band with Maynard Ferguson.[8] He became a professional pianist, starring in a weekly radio show and playing at hotels and music halls. In his teens he was a member of the Johnny Holmes Orchestra. From 1945 to 1949 he worked in a trio and recorded for Victor Records. He gravitated toward boogie-woogie and swing with a particular fondness for Nat King Cole and Teddy Wilson.[9] By the time he was in his 20s, he had developed a reputation as a technically brilliant and melodically inventive pianist.[10]

Duos, trios, and quartets[edit] In a cab on the way to the Montreal airport, Norman Granz heard a radio program broadcasting from a local club. He was so impressed that he told the driver to take him to the club so he could meet the pianist. In 1949 he introduced Peterson in New York City at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert at Carnegie Hall.[7] He remained Peterson's manager for most of his career. This was more than a managerial relationship; Peterson praised Granz for standing up for him and other black jazz musicians in the segregationist south of the 1950s and 1960s. In the documentary video Music in the Key of Oscar, Peterson tells how Granz stood up to a gun-toting southern policeman who wanted to stop the trio from using "whites-only" taxis.[11]

Joe Pass and Oscar Peterson at Eastman Theatre Rochester, New York, in 1977

Ill health and later years[edit]

Tombstone of Oscar Peterson at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Mississauga

Peterson had arthritis since his youth, and in later years he had trouble buttoning his shirt. Never slender, his weight increased to 125 kg (276 lb), hindering his mobility. He had hip replacement surgery in the early 1990s.[18] Although the surgery was successful, his mobility was still inhibited. In 1993 a stroke weakened his left side and removed him from work for two years. During the same year incoming prime minister Jean Chrétien, his friend and fan, offered him the position of Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. According to Chrétien, Peterson declined the job due to ill health related to the stroke.[19] Although he recovered some dexterity in his left hand, his piano playing was diminished, and his style had relied principally on his right hand. In 1995 he returned to occasional public performances and recorded for Telarc. In 1997 he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and an International Jazz Hall of Fame Award. His friend, Canadian politician and amateur pianist Bob Rae, said, "a one-handed Oscar was better than just about anyone with two hands."[20] In 2003, Peterson recorded the DVD A Night in Vienna for Verve with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Ulf Wakenius, and Martin Drew. He continued to tour the U.S. and Europe, though at most one month a year, with rest between concerts. In 2007 his health declined. He canceled his plans to perform at the Toronto Jazz Festival and a Carnegie Hall all-star concert that was to be given in his honour. Peterson died on December 23, 2007 of kidney failure at his home in Mississauga, Ontario.[21][22]

Personal life[edit] Peterson was married four times.[23][24] He smoked cigarettes and a pipe and often tried to break the habit, but every time he stopped he gained weight. He loved to cook and remained a large man throughout his life.[25]

Composer and teacher[edit]

Peterson in 1977

Peterson taught piano and improvisation in Canada, mainly in Toronto. With associates, he started and headed the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto for five years during the 1960s, but it closed because touring called him and his associates away, and it did not have government funding.[26] Later, he mentored the York University jazz program and was the Chancellor of the university for several years in the early 1990s.[27][28] He published jazz piano etudes for practice. He asked his students to study the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Goldberg Variations, and The Art of Fugue, considering these piano pieces essential for every serious pianist. Among his students were pianists Benny Green and Oliver Jones.[29]

Awards and honours[edit] Grammy Awards[edit]        

1975 Best Jazz Performance by a Group The Trio 1977 Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist The Giants 1978 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist Oscar Peterson Jam – Montreux '77 1979 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist Oscar Peterson and The Trumpet Kings – Jousts 1990 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group Live at the Blue Note 1990 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist The Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio Live at the Blue Note 1991 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group Saturday Night at the Blue Note 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award Instrumental Soloist Lifetime Achievement

Other awards[edit]

Statue of Oscar Peterson was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in June 2010.

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Pianist of the year, DownBeat magazine, 1950, and won again for the next 12 years[34] Order of Canada, Officer, 1972; Companion, 1984 Canadian Music Hall of Fame, 1978 Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award, Black Theatre Workshop, 1986 Roy Thomson Award, 1987 Toronto Arts Award for lifetime achievement, 1991 Governor General's Performing Arts Award, 1992 Glenn Gould Prize, 1993 International Society for Performing Artists award, 1995 Loyola Medal of Concordia University, 1997[34] Praemium Imperiale World Art Award, 1999 Oscar Peterson Concert Hall named at Concordia University, 1999[35] UNESCO Music Prize, 2000 Toronto Musicians' Association Musician of the Year, 2001 SOCAN Special Achievement Award, 2008[36] Canada's Walk of Fame, 2013 Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame Juno Award Hall of Fame BBC Radio Lifetime Achievement Award Order of Ontario, member National Order of Quebec, Chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France Civic Award of Merit, City of Mississauga, 2003[37] Oscar Peterson Hall, University of Toronto Mississauga, 2008[38] Oscar Peterson Public School, Stouffville, 2009[39] Statue of Oscar Peterson unveiled in Ottawa by Queen Elizabeth II, 2010[40][41]

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Honorary degrees from Berklee College of Music, Carleton University, Queen's University, Concordia University,[42] Université Laval, McMaster University, Mount Allison University, Niagara, Northwestern, University of Toronto, University of the West Indies, University of Western Ontario,[43] University of Victoria, and York University

Instruments[edit]           

Bösendorfer pianos - 1990s and 2000s, some performances from the 70s onward. Yamaha - Acoustic and Disklavier- 1998-2006 in Canada (Touring and Recording) Steinway & Sons Model A (which currently resides at Village Studios in Hollywood) - most performances from the 1940s through the 1980s, some recordings. Baldwin pianos - some performances in the USA, some recordings. C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik pianos - some performances and recordings in Europe. Petrof pianos - some performances in Europe. Clavichord - on album Porgy and Bess with Joe Pass Fender Rhodes electric piano - several recordings. Synthesizer - several recordings. Hammond organ - some live performances and several recordings. Vocals - some live performances and several recordings.