Keyboard Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 36) Dr. Oscar Peterson, 1925-2007 down into the time, we make it hard for a bigger band to [follow us]. We swing that hard. When I play with Dizzy [Gillespie], Ray [Brown], Zoot [Sims], Clark [Terry], or Joe Pass, they’re all aware that when I’m in the rhythm section, I deal with time, nothing else. For a rhythm section to give what it has to give, you have to deal that heavily with time.” Right from the beginning, Oscar’s playing was infused with brilliant, effortless blues phrasing. “A jazz phrase can’t be a jazz phrase without a certain type of blues feeling to it,” he told Robert L. Doerschuk for a Keyboard interview in the ’80s. “That doesn’t mean it has to be premeditated; it just means you have to have that feel to it.” Sooner or later on any Oscar performance, he’d go I met Oscar only a few times and he was always extremely cordial and encouraging to me. I always viewed him with the kind of respect I had for Art Tatum; they were both such huge contributors to our music and culture. We’re fortunate to have Oscar’s incredible work preserved on recordings for our study and pleasure. Thank you, Oscar. Chick Corea into doubletime and play things that simply defied reason. You couldn’t top it for plain old excitement, but his musicality and phrasing was always impeccable, no matter how ridiculous the tempo. To me, that always begged the question: What piano could withstand this? “The biggest challenge for me was in the temperament and personalities of the instruments that I encountered on the road,” Oscar once told me. “I had an experience somewhere, where one of the stagehands said to me, ‘Did you hear that a piano collapsed on [a classical pianist who shall remain nameless]? First, the pedal carriage came off when he went back for an encore. The next thing he knew, one of the legs started to collapse. This guy ended up just having to jump away from the piano to save himself. I have to admit, after that night it gave me a phobia. I had to keep checking the legs all night after every tune. I’d tap the pedal carriages very gently.” Oscar kept the drumless trio with Herb Ellis until 1958, when he replaced the guitar with drummer Ed Thigpen. For most of the ’60s, the trio consisted of Sam Jones on bass and Bobby Durham on drums. “Most people think that once you’re out of a trio with a guitar and you enter one with drums, it’s complete freedom,” Oscar once wryly commented. “It isn’t.” In the early ’70s, Oscar appeared in a remarkable variety of ensemble settings. He reunited with original trio members Barney Kessel and Ray Brown, 20 years after their previous engagements together. His association with guitarist Joe Pass was one of the most astonishing virtuoso pairings in jazz. They shared the ability to create as soloists alone whatever sonic world they imagined, and when they played together, the whole The only reason I got into improvised music and jazz was Oscar Peterson. Unquestionably. He opened the gate for me, coming from classical music and popular music. When I heard him playing those old tunes, it blew my head off and I couldn’t get enough of it. His might have been the first jazz concert I ever saw, him playing solo. I think he’s been a great influence on a lot of people. His command of the instrument was phenomenal — how far he could swing, the lines he played, the way he used the instrument, and all his solo piano devices. He just had that way of playing that was incredibly sophisticated but also sounded like going to church. He could rock it. John Medeski A SELECTED DR. OSCAR PETERSON DISCOGRAPHY To learn more about Oscar’s life and music, pick up a copy of his biography, A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson, by Richard Palmer; I can’t recommend it highly enough. Oscar Peterson: The Will to Swing by Gene Lees is well worth reading too (though Oscar himself referred to it as an “unauthorized” biography). P.G. Music (www.pgmusic.com) has published a fabulous CO-ROM called “Oscar Peterson,” which contains Oscar’s autobiography, a searchable discography, film and video clips, photographs, and scrolling, audible transcriptions of many of his famous performances. Oscar’s own informative website is www. oscarpeterson.com. And best of all, there is still Oscar’s music. You can hardly go wrong with anything Oscar recorded. But here is a tiny selection of his recorded output that we’re confident you’ll enjoy. At Zardi’s (Pablo) West Side Story (Polygram) Ella and Oscar (Pablo) Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio (Polygram) Dimensions: A Compendium of the Pablo Years (Pablo) Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Songbook (Polygram) Night Train (Polygram) Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie (Pablo) The Very Tall Band Live (Telarc) Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland (Jazz Alliance) DVDs The More I See you (Telarc) Music in the Key of Oscar (View) Oscar Peterson Trio Plus One (Verve) Porgy and Bess (OJC) Satch and Josh (OJC) The Trio (OJC) 36 keyboard 03-2008 We Get Requests (Polygram) Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival (Pablo) http://www.oscarpeterson.com http://www.oscarpeterson.com http://www.pgmusic.com
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