Oscar Peterson born 15 August 1925

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist, virtuoso and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and informally in the jazz community as "the King of inside swing". 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, and played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years.

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, the son of a CPR Railway porter, was born in Montreal and grew up in St. Henri. His father was a strict disciplinarian who led a family band and expected all of his children to be able to play an instrument. Oscar was blowing a trumpet by the time he was five years old. He switched to piano after he spent a year in hospital with tuberculosis. Initially he was tutored by his sister Daisy, but then took formal lessons from classical pianist Paul de Marky who instilled in him the romantic influence of Franz Liszt.

When he was 15 Peterson won an amateur contest and as a result he was given his own 15- minute radio show on CKAC, Piano Ramblin’. By the early 40’s he was heard nationally on CBC radio shows such as The Happy Gang.  Intimidated when he heard a recording by Art Tatum, the most admired jazz pianist of them all, Peterson briefly abandoned the piano to work as a riveter with an aircraft company.  When he returned, he formed his own trio to play the Alberta Lounge, a nightspot around the corner from Windsor Station.

Peterson played with the Johnny Holmes orchestra and encountered discrimination when the manager of the Ritz-Carlton forced him to enter the hotel through a side door to play a dance there in the 1943. By the time he was 21, Peterson was already a sparkling virtuoso who could stop a show dead. He 
made his first record in 1945, a 78 rpm version of ‘I got Rhythm’ that sold well.  When

Norman Granz signed him to play Carnegie Hall in New York in 1949, Peterson was only 25.

Peterson’s speed at the keyboard was reminiscent of Tatum’s, but their styles were different. Peterson was much more inventive, lyrical, physical, and animated. Wary of racism in the United States, Peterson resisted opportunities to work with big bands south of the border and instead formed his own trios with American musicians such as bassist Ray Brown, guitarist Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis. His trios version of “Tenderly” was especially popular during the ’50s. He toured Europe annually through most of that decade, often with Ella Fitzgerald.

                              

Peterson was also a composer. The 1957 recording of the Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Festival still crops up on the best-ever lists of jazz albums. His Canadiana Suite, written in 1964 was a series of jazz themes inspired by the various landscapes and cities of Canada. During the ’60s Peterson also caught the attention of German producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwarz and recorded 20 albums with him.

In 1958, Peterson moved to Toronto, where he started the Advanced School of Contemporary Music, and later taught at York University.  His trio disbanded in 1962 when he began to tour solo. He teamed up with former British Prime Minister Edward Heath for a six-part BBC television series that was aired in 1975, and returned to Montreal to play at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel during the 1976 Olympics. He recorded soundtracks for movies including Woody Allen’s Play It Again Sam, The Silent Partner, and Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. He recorded his Africa Suite in 1983 and two songs from it, ‘Nigerian Marketplace’ and ‘Peace’ became part of his repertoire.

Poor health and marital problems were the only blot on his success. Months before he suffered a serious stroke in 1993 he had had a hip replacement, and he continued to be afflicted by the arthritis he'd had since childhood. After the stroke he thought he would never play again. It took many months of therapy before he was able return to the concert platform. He resumed his recording career in January 1995. "I've learned something about patience," he said.

Peterson accumulated ten honorary doctorates. He was invested in the Order of Canada in 1972, made a companion of the order in 1984 and in 1991 given the Order of Quebec. He was 

awarded the Glenn Gould Prize in 1993 and in 1999, and the concert hall at Concordia University’s Loyola campus in Montreal bears his name.

From that time his use of his left hand was severely limited and his recordings now tended to involve trumpet and saxophone players who could take some of the solo burden. In May 1995, with use of the left hand restored, he returned to Carnegie Hall once more. He toured Britain again, playing in London at the Barbican in 1996 and at the Albert Hall in 2005. Despite worsening arthritis that made it difficult for him to walk, he kept touring.

His health declined rapidly in 2007. Peterson had to cancel his performance at the 2007 Toronto Jazz Festival and his attendance at a June 8, 2007 Carnegie Hall all-star performance in his honour, due to illness. On December 23, 2007, Oscar Peterson died of kidney failure at his home in Mississauga, Ontario, a western suburb of Toronto

(Edited from Wikipedia & The Montreal Gazette)