Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC, CQ, OOntwas a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, but simply "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, and received numerous other awards and honours. He is considered one of the greatest jazz pianists, and played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionPianist
Date of Birth15 August 1925
CityMontreal, Canada
CountryCanada
You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz.
I despair about the lack of proper respect shown for the piano. If you want it to sound like a traffic jam, go out in the street and forget the piano. That's not a piano sound.
If the average jazz artist uses his head and at the outset of his career realizes he won't play as well at fifty as he does at twenty-five, he won't be in a line-up outside the Salvation Army when he's fifty.
I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.
Louie Bellson represents the epitome of musical talent. His ability to cover the whole musical spectrum from an elite percussionist to a very gifted composer and arranger never ceases to amaze me. I consider him one of the musical giants of our age.
Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing. I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea. I have no one style. I play as I feel.
Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.
We're not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour.
I am the worlds laziest writer.
He's not a performer, he's not a composer, he's not even a musician, but Norman Granz is Mr. Jazz.
Sweets [Edison] can say more with one note than any other Jazz player alive... an approach that stresses simplicity, glorious tone, natural potency and an unmatched affinity. He is a unique stylist in our music.
I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.