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Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, 15 August 1925 |
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Oscar Peterson grew up in the Montréal neighborhood of Little Burgundy, which at the time was an area filled with drugs, violence and poverty. It was in this predominantly black neighborhood that he found himself surrounded by the jazz culture that flourished in the early 20th century. At a time when racial tensions had their grip on America, Little Burgundy was known as a haven for many African-American artists. At 5 years old, Peterson began honing his skills with the trumpet and piano under the tutelage of his father. However, by the age of seven, after a bout of tuberculosis, he directed all his attention to the piano. |
 Peterson has also credited his sister Daisy Sweeney, a noted piano teacher in Montreal who also taught several other noted Canadian jazz musicians, with being an important teacher and influence on his career.
He soon developed a reputation as a technically brilliant and melodically inventive jazz pianist, and became a regular on Canadian radio. His career took off when American impresario Norman Granz heard Peterson on the radio in his taxi as he was being driven to Montréal airport. The broadcast was a live performance at a local club, and Granz diverted the driver to take him to the club to meet Peterson. Granz invited Peterson to come to Carnegie Hall to perform in one of Granz's productions, Jazz at the Philharmonic, and although he couldn't be paid for that performance due to union regulations, he did join the production and toured with them for 2 years. |
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| In the early 1950s, Peterson began performing with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as the Oscar Peterson Trio. Shortly afterward the drummer Smith was replaced by guitarist Irving Ashby, formerly of the Nat King Cole Trio. Ashby, who was a swing guitarist, was soon replaced by Barney Kessel. Kessel tired of touring after a year, and was succeeded by Herb Ellis. When Ellis left the group in 1958, Peterson and Brown believed they could not adequately replace Ellis, and the trio added a drummer — first Gene Gammage for a brief time, then Ed Thigpen.
In 1993, Peterson suffered a serious stroke that weakened his left side and sidelined him for two years. However he overcame this setback and continued to work on a limited basis. Peterson had to cancel his performance at the 2007 Toronto Jazz Festival, and his attendance to a June 8th Carnegie Hall all-star performance in his honour, due to illness. On December 23, 2007, he died of kidney failure at his home in Mississauga. |
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 His work has earned him seven Grammy awards over the years and he was elected to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1978. He also belongs to the Juno Awards Hall of Fame and the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame.
He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1972, and promoted to Companion, its highest rank, in 1984. He is also a member of the Order of Ontario, a Chevalier of the National Order of Quebec, and an officer of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has received the Roy Thomson Award (1987), a Toronto Arts Award for lifetime achievement (1991), the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (1992), the Glenn Gould Prize (1993), the award of the International Society for Performing Artists (1995), the Loyola Medal of Concordia University (1997), the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1997), the Praemium |
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Imperiale World Art Award (1999), the UNESCO Music Prize (2000), and the Toronto Musicians' Association Musician of the Year award (2001). He had 10 honourary Doctorates, and the Peel District School Board named a school after him. On August 15, 2005 Peterson celebrated his 80th birthday at the HMV flagship store in Toronto. A crowd of about 200 gathered to celebrate with him there. Diana Krall sang happy birthday to him and also performed a vocal version of one of Peterson's songs "When Summer Comes". The lyrics for this version were written by Elvis Costello, Krall's husband. Canada Post unveiled a commemorative postage stamp in his honour. This marked the first time that a Canadian postage stamp was created celebrating an individual who was still alive other than members of the British Royal Family. World leaders and the global press from the New York Times to Radio New Zealand are eulogizing him today, he will be missed by millions. If you have never seen or heard him, you can here. For more information on Oscar's 80th birthday stamp, see Newsletter #71. |
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