Born into a musical family, Oscar Peterson was the
fourth of five children who were all taught music from an early age by
their father, a railway porter who moved to
Canada from the
West Indies. Peterson studied both trumpet and piano until a bout with
tuberculosis at age six forced him to spend more than a year in the
hospital and left him unable to continue playing the trumpet. Instead,
he devoted himself to his piano studies with a ferocity that would come
to characterize his playing, often practicing more than 12 hours a day.
Of Peterson's several teachers, the most influential was Hungarian
concert pianist Paul de Marky, who helped his young student develop a
formidable technique. Despite his classical training, however, Peterson
was captivated by jazz and would often slip downstairs after everyone
was asleep to listen quietly to Duke Ellington and
Count Basie on the radio. When his father played a record by
Art Tatum, whose astounding technical ability Peterson would be one
of the few to match, Peterson could not believe that only one person was
making all that sound and asked his father, "Who are those guys?"
At age 14 Peterson's sister, who had been one of
his first piano teachers, entered him in a Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC) amateur piano competition, which he won and which lead
to regular performances on CBC radio shows. In an early interview
Peterson described his developing style as more
swing than jazz and said he preferred the more "organized" format of
that music. His playing, like Tatum's, was characterized by a strong
left hand pounding out the rhythm on the
bass notes with the right hand carrying the melody. When he later
combined this method with the influence of bebop, his distinctive
style--one to which he would remain faithful throughout his career--was
born.
In the mid-1940s Peterson began playing as the
featured soloist with the formerly all-white Johnny Holmes Orchestra and
started his recording career on the RCA Victor label, mostly in the
trio format (piano, bass, and either drums or guitar) that would become his trademark. A 1947
Montreal performance of Peterson's trio that was broadcast live on
the radio was heard by the American jazz impresario Norman Granz, who
was in a taxi on his way to the airport. Granz immediately turned around
and went to the club, which marked the beginning of a relationship that
would introduce Peterson's music to the world.
Granz, who would later found the influential Verve record label, was the producer of a musical series called Jazz at the
Philharmonic. He brought Peterson with him to New York City to appear as a surprise guest at one of the concerts held at
Carnegie Hall, where Peterson played a duet with the bassist Ray
Brown. That performance launched Peterson's career in the United States
and began a musical relationship with Brown that would span more than 40
years and 240 albums. Peterson became the touring pianist for Jazz at
the Philharmonic, traveling the globe with the group in what became a
kind of concert jam band for some of jazz's top names, until 1952. Much
of the group's work was recorded for Granz's Verve label.
Peterson made many other recordings for the label,
first as a duo with Brown and later in various trio formats. The best
known of these, which lasted from 1953 to 1958, featured Brown and
guitarist Herb Ellis and were celebrated for their complex arrangements
and the musical competition among the three men. Peterson, whose
popularity was at its apex, was voted best pianist by readers of Down Beat
magazine for five straight years beginning in 1950. When Ellis left the
trio, his eventual replacement was drummer Ed Thigpen, who played with
Peterson and Brown until 1965. Peterson, along with Brown and several
others, opened a school of contemporary music in
Toronto, Canada, in 1960, beginning a lifelong commitment to
teaching that continued until his death, despite the failure of the
school just three years later. In the late 1960s Peterson made several
solo recordings and tours, giving his listeners an unhindered
opportunity to appreciate his ability with and feel for the instrument.
Peterson continued to tour and record as a solo
artist and with various trios and groups from the 1970s through the
early 1990s, developing his own compositions during this time as well.
In 1990 the famous trio with Brown and Ellis reunited to tour and record
several albums. While performing at New York City's Blue Note jazz club
in 1993, Peterson noticed that he was having trouble playing notes with
his left hand. Although he went on to complete the performance, he
learned later that he had suffered a
stroke. Depressed over losing much of the use of his left hand,
Peterson did not perform again for nearly two years. With the support of
his family and musical peers, however, he completed an intensive
physical therapy program and eventually returned to the stage, his
technique diminished, but his playing undeniably that of a jazz legend.
Oscar Peterson died on Dec. 23, 2007, at the age of 82.
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