Oscar Peterson, who is right up there with James Brown, or maybe on the tier just below, in terms of musicians who are influential on me, died yesterday. He was 82. It was listening to Oscar Peterson that got me listening to jazz in the first place. When I in 7th grade, I took piano lessons. I didn’t really practice all that much, partially because I didn’t like what I was playing. That’s when my piano teacher, Mr. Hendrix, broke out the Oscar Peterson books and told me that I could play from them if I did well on the other songs I was supposed to be playing. That was all well and good, but it wasn’t until I actually heard Peterson himself play that I was truly motivated to learn his technique. That first song, which still gets me to this day, was Whispering from the album, Benny Carter Meets Oscar Peterson. I was floored. I had never heard anybody play so fast. Granted, I had yet to hear Art Tatum, but still. It was Oscar Peterson who led me to his influences, Art Tatum and Nat King Cole, the pianist. Everybody knows Nat Cole the crooner, but strictly as a pianist, Nat was bad too. And in Oscar Peterson, you could hear them blend, almost like sometimes you can see both parents in a child’s face.
So I guess it’s James Brown and Oscar Peterson week.
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