R.IP Oscar Peterson

[Lord of The Curry 0]

One of Canada's greatest musicians and one of the most talented Jazz pianists died today in his Mississauga home of kidney failure at age 82. Courtesy of the CP24.com site.......

 

He won eight Grammys, was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and even had his legend honoured on a Canada Post 50-cent stamp. Oscar Peterson, a Canadian jazz music treasure and a piano wizard, has died at his Mississauga home.

 

The Montreal-born Peterson, who had been sick for a number of years, succumbed to kidney failure at the age of 82. It's the end of a long and storied career that has seen the music master jam with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Roy Eldridge, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.

 

Born in 1925, Peterson's music career began more than five decades ago when he played Montreal jazz clubs as a young man in the 1950s.

 

His talent was undeniable and soon Peterson found himself sharing a stage with other legends of the genre. He enjoyed working with them as much as they enjoyed his performances. "There's an extreme joy I get in playing that I've never been able to explain," Peterson explained in 1996. "I can only transmit it through the playing; I can't put it into words."

 

But there weren't words for the craft of this amazing man. He let his music do all the talking. And it spoke volumes.

 

The acclaim brought him an ever-growing audience, and soon he was playing not the modest jazz bars of his hometown but some of the biggest venues in the world - including New York's Carnegie Hall. And it wasn't just the people he played with that were impressive - it was those he performed for, as well. They included the Queen and former then-U.S. President Richard Nixon.

 

Peterson overcame prejudice and poverty to win eight Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement nod in 1997, innumerable prizes from his peers, and the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement. In all, he recorded nearly 200 albums, some of the most famous with partners Herb Ellis and Ray Brown, often cited as one of the world's finest jazz threesomes.

 

"You saw the greatness immediately," Ellis recalled of his partner. "He was awesome right away -- always."

 

Peterson was proudly Canadian but his greatness led many down south to consider him one of their own. "I've achieved a funny kind of status in Canada," he once related. "Most of it comes because I went to the United States and other places, and as a result of Canadians having seen me repeatedly on the television shows of people like Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin ... I think that has weighed heavily with Canadians."

 

His status allowed him special honours rarely afforded a mere mortal music man. He helped open Toronto's Advanced School of Contemporary Music in 1960, but it failed for a lack of funding. He later served as an adjunct music professor at York University in the mid-1980s and became its chancellor in the 1990s.

 

 

 

His health began to fail about 20 years ago, first stricken with the most terrible ailment that could befall a piano player - arthritis. He suffered a stroke in 1993 but recovered. But he never let age or infirmity get in the way of the music.

 

 

 

"Age doesn't seem to enter into my thought to that great an extent," he noted in 2001. "I just figure that the love I have of the instrument and my group and the medium itself works as a sort of a rejuvenating factor for me."

 

 

 

Not to mention all those who heard him play.

 

 

 

He leaves behind a wife, a daughter and millions of fans.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Greatest Piano player of all time.

 

RIP.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I might go down to Oscar Peterson Way and pay my respects a bit later. Dude was a great human being and like Carlito said one of the greatest jazz pianists ever.

[dubq 0]

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Hard to believe he only ever got a companion to the Order of Canada.

RIP Mr. Peterson.

[Ced 0]

Shame to hear he's passed on.

 

If you haven't listened to any of his work, definitely go on YouTube or wherever and sample it. He's something every musician should strive to be: somebody that puts their soul and love into their work everytime he goes.

[Red Baron 0]

RIP Mr. Peterson. Truly a legend will be missed.

 

Curry where is Peterson way?