Oscar Peterson dead at 82
Pianist Oscar Peterson has died at the age of 82. The Canadian-born musician succumbed to kidney failure on December 23, 2007. During his career Peterson recorded some 200 albums, winning eight Grammy awards. In 1997 he was honored with a Grammy for lifetime achievement.
Peterson one of the last of a long line of descendents of the Harlem piano professors like James P. Johnson as well as the virtuosic Art Tatum. In his early years Peterson was also influenced by Teddy Wilson and Nat “King” Cole. This helps explain the complete nature of Peterson’s playing. He was both a virtuoso who could unleash flights of technical fancy that few pianists could match and a superbly swinging pianist whose ability to get listeners tapping their toes demonstrated his roots in, and understanding of, blues, gospel, boogie, and stride piano. He was the complete package, and no pianist who came along afterward could remain uninfluenced by this keyboard giant.
I saw Peterson several times. The first couple of times I saw his was in the late 1970s, when I was in my teens and he was touring regularly and recording for the Pablo Records label. My father greatly enjoyed Peterson’s playing, recognizing that Oscar was a technically advanced pianist, but I think it was Petereson’s ability to swing that really hooked him. As I studied both classical and jazz piano, he introduced me to Peterson’s recordings and got tickets to see Peterson. I remember one of these shows, featuring Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, and the Count Basie Orchestra at Chicago’ McCormick Place. I watched awestruck as this solitary figure, alone on the stage with just a grand piano, filled the large auditorium with robust stride bass notes, impossibly funky blues, and mind-bendingly speedy right-hand gymnastics. Yet, even at his most frenetic, the flow of coherent musical ideas and the seeming ease with which he executed them was difficult to believe. My initial reaction was much like Peterson’s upon first being introduced to Art Tatum’s recordings by his father: one of utter despair, because I knew that no one, least of all me, would ever likely equal his pianistic abilities, much less surpass them.
I also saw Peterson following his comeback from a stroke, at the Ravinia Festival in the summer of 1994. His technique was diminished, and he relied more heavily on left-hand comping, outlining chords more sparsely than in the past, but it says much about the pianist’s incredible talent that he nonetheless was still one of the best jazz pianists around.
Peterson had a special affinity for Chicago, which produced a number of excellent jazz pianists over the years, and where the Oscar Peterson Trio was a regular feature in the 1950s and on into the ‘60s; at clubs such as Mr. Kelly’s and the London House. Though those clubs, like many others, closed in subsequent decades, Oscar continued to be in constant demand, performing at auditoriums and concert halls around the world.
Peterson’s passing is indeed the passing of an era in jazz music. No one since Art Tatum has been so widely lauded or universally recognized as a piano great, and few pianists these days demonstrate Peterson’s knowledge of all eras and styles of the instrument. To say that Oscar Peterson will be missed is an understatement of enormous proportions. Rather, he will be lamented as one of the last of a certain breed of jazz pianist, and we won’t see his like again anytime soon.
Peterson one of the last of a long line of descendents of the Harlem piano professors like James P. Johnson as well as the virtuosic Art Tatum. In his early years Peterson was also influenced by Teddy Wilson and Nat “King” Cole. This helps explain the complete nature of Peterson’s playing. He was both a virtuoso who could unleash flights of technical fancy that few pianists could match and a superbly swinging pianist whose ability to get listeners tapping their toes demonstrated his roots in, and understanding of, blues, gospel, boogie, and stride piano. He was the complete package, and no pianist who came along afterward could remain uninfluenced by this keyboard giant.
I saw Peterson several times. The first couple of times I saw his was in the late 1970s, when I was in my teens and he was touring regularly and recording for the Pablo Records label. My father greatly enjoyed Peterson’s playing, recognizing that Oscar was a technically advanced pianist, but I think it was Petereson’s ability to swing that really hooked him. As I studied both classical and jazz piano, he introduced me to Peterson’s recordings and got tickets to see Peterson. I remember one of these shows, featuring Peterson, guitarist Joe Pass, and the Count Basie Orchestra at Chicago’ McCormick Place. I watched awestruck as this solitary figure, alone on the stage with just a grand piano, filled the large auditorium with robust stride bass notes, impossibly funky blues, and mind-bendingly speedy right-hand gymnastics. Yet, even at his most frenetic, the flow of coherent musical ideas and the seeming ease with which he executed them was difficult to believe. My initial reaction was much like Peterson’s upon first being introduced to Art Tatum’s recordings by his father: one of utter despair, because I knew that no one, least of all me, would ever likely equal his pianistic abilities, much less surpass them.
I also saw Peterson following his comeback from a stroke, at the Ravinia Festival in the summer of 1994. His technique was diminished, and he relied more heavily on left-hand comping, outlining chords more sparsely than in the past, but it says much about the pianist’s incredible talent that he nonetheless was still one of the best jazz pianists around.
Peterson had a special affinity for Chicago, which produced a number of excellent jazz pianists over the years, and where the Oscar Peterson Trio was a regular feature in the 1950s and on into the ‘60s; at clubs such as Mr. Kelly’s and the London House. Though those clubs, like many others, closed in subsequent decades, Oscar continued to be in constant demand, performing at auditoriums and concert halls around the world.
Peterson’s passing is indeed the passing of an era in jazz music. No one since Art Tatum has been so widely lauded or universally recognized as a piano great, and few pianists these days demonstrate Peterson’s knowledge of all eras and styles of the instrument. To say that Oscar Peterson will be missed is an understatement of enormous proportions. Rather, he will be lamented as one of the last of a certain breed of jazz pianist, and we won’t see his like again anytime soon.
posted by Marshall at 5:20 PM
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