Jazz giant Oscar Peterson dead at 82

Legendary jazz pianist and composer Oscar Peterson has died at the age of 82, sounding the final note for one of the most celebrated musical careers of the 20th century.  In an era when many talented Canadians forsook their native country for larger markets and a higher profile in the United States, jazz pianist Oscar Peterson managed a rare feat by transcending his birthplace, yet never completely leaving it behind.

Mr. Peterson, who died Sunday in Toronto at age 82, achieved worldwide recognition in the 1950s, and though he continued touring widely he never forgot his roots in Montreal's Little Burgundy district of St. Henri.  Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was born on Montreal's Delisle Street on Aug. 15, 1925. The fourth of five children, he received early piano training from his father, Daniel from the West Indies who was a talented amateur pianist-- a no-nonsense Canadian Pacific Railway porter who was determined that his children would acquire an appreciation for the arts -- and then from his sister, Daisy.

After winning a CBC radio talent show aged 14, Peterson went on to drop out of school and play on a weekly jazz program before hitting the hotels and music halls of Montreal.

Lessons with Lou Hooper and Hungarian-born classical pianist Paul de Marky followed, and by 15 Mr. Peterson was proficient enough to have his own 15-minute radio program on Montreal's CKAC.

Strongly influenced by Teddy Wilson of Benny Goodman's band, boogie-woogie pioneer James P. Johnson and the legendary soloist Art Tatum, Mr. Peterson had an exceptionally good musical ear and extraordinarily quick hands. But, more than anything, he had an unshakeable work ethic that had been drilled into him by his father.

Initially, however, Mr. Peterson took playing lightly: he would read comic books instead of practising, coasting on his perfect pitch. That changed in his early teens when he fell in love with jazz.  "As soon as I found out that I could find a more direct, expressive avenue in projecting my own musical ideas through jazz, that's when I decided to go that way," he said.

When Mr. Peterson asked to quit high school to concentrate on his burgeoning talent, his father said he would only allow it if his son would promise to strive to be the best jazz pianist in the world. Second best was not an option.

Overcoming the overt racism of the era, in 1943 he became the first black musician to play in a dance music orchestra in Montreal. He later became a noted campaigner for civil rights both in Canada and the United States.

Peterson's international career got off to a sensational start when he played with well-established stars at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1949 at the invitation of impresario Norman Granz, who became his manager.

Peterson formed his first band in 1951 and a later trio with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown was cited by aficionados as one of the world's finest jazz groups.

"You saw the greatness immediately," Ellis said of Peterson. "He was awesome right away -- always."

Peterson regularly toured European clubs and concert halls, often accompanied by the stellar voice of Ella Fitzgerald. "It makes you want to sing," Fitzgerald, who died in 1996, remarked of Peterson's piano playing.

Peterson recorded nearly 200 albums. Perhaps his best-known composition was 1964's Canadiana Suite, each of whose eight tracks was inspired by a region of his homeland.

Peterson defied arthritis and ill health in his later years, and continued to record despite suffering a stroke while performing at New York's Blue Note club in 1993 that impaired his left hand.

Even one-handed, he was "still light years ahead of everyone else," according to jazz broadcaster Ross Porter.

"Age doesn't seem to enter into my thought to that great an extent," Peterson said in 2001, according to the Toronto Star newspaper.

"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."

In the '80s, Mr. Peterson began to take life easier, preferring solo recitals to small-group tours, and he began to garner the kind of accolades rarely given to jazz performers. An officer of the Order of Canada since 1973, he was promoted to Companion in 1984. The prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston named a scholarship in his honour and he was inducted into several halls of fame.

In 1993, Mr. Peterson was named the recipient of the Glenn Gould Prize. But the award ceremony was bittersweet. Just before returning to Toronto to receive the honour, Mr. Peterson suffered a stroke, and the left hand that once struck fear in other pianists was paralysed.  Two years of intensive therapy returned Mr. Peterson to the stage, although only with the full use of his right hand. Always a heavyset man, he now used a wheelchair for public appearances. He tired quickly, but never on the bandstand.

In his later years, Mr. Peterson reflected several times on his life, participating with his niece Sylvia Sweeney in a CBC television biography called Oscar Peterson: The Will To Swing and in a CBC radio documentary, In The Key Of Oscar.

His health began to fade more quickly in 2006 and by this year he was forced to cancel many of his appearances, including a June tribute at New York's Carnegie Hall designed to mark the 1949 appearance there that launched his international career.

That came a few weeks after Mr. Peterson performed his final large-scale series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, shows that received glowing accolades from fans and critics despite the pianist's occasional fumbling at the keyboard.

The Canadian, who reportedly died of kidney failure late Sunday, played with all the greats during his six decades in the business with a versatile style that ranged from boogie-woogie to stride to bebop.  He won seven Grammy awards for individual recordings plus the Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 1997.

Jazz musician Oliver Jones bemoaned the "terrible, terrible loss" of his long-time friend.  "But I'm very happy that he died the way that he wanted to, at home, with his family around him," he told CBC television. 

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, another of Peterson's many friends, said: "The world has lost the world's greatest jazz player."

Opposition Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion said he felt "the grief of the millions of fans with whom Oscar Peterson shared the tremendous gift of his remarkable music."

His studio and live partners comprised a roll call of legends, including Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole and Stan Getz.

A genius at improvisation, Peterson recalled in 2005 how the heat of live free-form jazz could give birth to "moments of great beauty."

Married four times, Peterson leaves behind six children.  Mr. Peterson expressed regrets that he was not as close to his family as he could have been -- some of his children were bitter about his priorities -- but to be one of the best, he said, life had to be all about music. "I don't let anything come in between myself and the art form," he said. "Nothing else takes precedence."

Of all the honours, awards, retrospectives and compliments accorded to Oscar Peterson's piano work, though, perhaps the nicest -- and simplest -- tribute came from the ever-lyrical Ella Fitzgerald: "It makes you want to sing."

Hartson S. Dowd

hsdowd@telus.net