Arts & Culture

On December 23 and beyond, take a moment to remember Canadian jazz great Oscar Peterson (Born: August 15, 1925 in Montréal, Québec, Canada; Died: December 23, 2007 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada), the winner of eight Grammy Awards, and arguably, one of the best jazz pianists of all time. Peterson enjoyed the respect of fellow jazz musicians such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington. He also counted crooner Frank Sinatra amongst his fans.

Peterson began playing the trumpet at five years of age but switched to the piano at eight years of age after a bout of tuberculosis. He established the Oscar Peterson Trio in 1951 that produced music using the piano, guitar and bass. Peterson recorded and performed music in Europe and the United States as well as Canada. He also authored four volumes of exercises to encourage future jazz pianists. The onset of arthritis reduced his schedule during the 1980s and he was required to take time off to recuperate following a stroke in 1993. For his contribution to music, Peterson also received the International Jazz Hall of Fame Award, Juno Awards, the Order of Canada, the Order of Arts and Letters in France, and the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (1992) as well as honorary degrees from a variety of universities. Consider the following items for borrowing from Toronto Public Library collections:

CDs

Performers: Oscar Peterson Trio (Oscar Peterson, piano; Barney Kessel, guitar; Ray Brown, bass)

The contents were recorded variously between 1932 and 1994. Disc 2 included music recorded at live performances.

Disc 1: 1950-1955; Disc 2: 1955-1958.

DVDs

This DVD included performances for the following television programs: Mørk sang (Sweden, 1963), Swing it Oscar (Denmark, 1964) and Live in Finland (Finland, 1965).

Performers: Oscar Peterson, piano; with the Oscar Peterson Trio (includes Ray Brown, bass ; Herb Ellis, guitar) and various other performers.

Performers: Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Ray Brown, Herb Ellis, Norman Granz, Dizzy Gillespie, Jeff Hamilton and more. The documentary covered Oscar Peterson’s career from his early Montréal boogie-woogie days through to his rise to international popularity with ground-breaking jazz music.

Would you rather read about Oscar Peterson instead of/in addition to listening to his music? Try the following books:

Books

Barris employed a loose chronological approach coupled with many anecdotes on the musical career of Oscar Peterson. The book included a partial discography of Peterson’s music as the recordings from the late 1940s were not included.

Jazz historian and song lyricist Lees examined the career, personality and intertwined family history of outstanding Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.

You can also read what the great man had to say about himself: