Oscar Peterson



Oscar Emmanuel Peterson ( August 15, Montreal, Toronto, 1925 - 23 december 2007) was a Canadian jazzpianist and composer.

His father taught him at the age of five play trumpet and piano . After he had gotten tuberculosis, he concentrated on his seventh on the piano. He quickly acquired a reputation as a technically brilliant and melodically inventive jazz pianist, and was a regular guest in radio programs. He made his first appearance in the Carnegie Hall in 1949.

He played together with Ray Brown, Herb Ellis, Ed Thigpen, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Stan Getz, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, Clark Terry and Joe Pass. An important moment in his career was when he joined the impresario Norman Granz 's labels (especially Verve Records), leaving him with the great jazz artists of that time could work together.

Artists who influenced Oscar in his early years, were among others Teddy Wilson, Nat "King" Cole, James p. Johnson and the legendary Art Tatum.

Peterson got a stroke In 1993, leaving his left weakened and he had to keep peace for two years. He came over it and went doing well by performing, recording and composing. In 1997 he received a Grammy Award for his entire career and an International Jazz Hall of Fame Award, proof that Peterson is seen as one of the greatest jazz musicians.

His work earned him seven Grammy Awards over the years. In 1978, he was included in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. It was also in the Juno Awards Hall of Fame and the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame.

In 1972, he was an officer of the order of Canada and in 1984 he became Companion, the highest rank, promoted. He is also a member of the order of Ontario, Knight of the Ordre du Québec and officer of the French Ordre des Arts and des Lettres.

In 1978 he received the Roy Thomson Award, in 1991 the Toronto Arts Award for his entire career, in 1992, the Governor General's Performing Arts Awardin 1993 the Glenn Gould Prize, in 1995 the price of theInternational Society for Performing Artists, the Loyola Medal in 1997 by the Concordia University, in 1999 the Praemium Imperiale World Art Award, in 2000 the UNESCO Music Prize, and in 2001 the Toronto Musicians ' Association Musician of the Year Award.

Peterson played 15 times at the North Sea Jazz Festival, most recently in 2005. He died in 2007 to a liver disease.

Some of his recordings are:


 * Exclusively for My Friends
 * The President Plays With The Oscar Peterson Trio (1952)
 * Oscar Peterson Plays Duke Ellington (1953)
 * Oscar Peterson Plays the Duke Ellington Song Book (1959)
 * A Portrait of Frank Sinatra (1959) (1971, reissued in)
 * West Side Story: Oscar Peterson Trio (1962)
 * Night Train (1962)
 * Canadiana Suite (1963)
 * Hymn to Freedom (1964)
 * We Get Requests (1964)
 * Easter Suite (1984)
 * Oscar Peterson Plays the Duke Ellington Song Book (1999), combined reissue of the Ellington-recordings from 1953 and 1959.