Legend Lost: Canadian Jazzman Oscar Peterson Dies At Age 82

He was a man who tickled the ivories and audiences across the globe. He was a Canadian icon, a teacher, an eight-time Grammy winner and even one of the few Canucks with his face on a postage stamp. But to the world he could be summed up in just two words – “the best.”

Tributes are pouring in from around the world for jazz legend Oscar Peterson, who died in his Mississauga home at age 82 after a lifetime of making great music and inspiring others with it. The music legend hadn’t been well for some time, since he was felled by a stroke in 1993. But he never let the damage that attack did stop him from playing the piano, an instrument he mastered early in life.

While family members knew their father was fading, his daughter Celine is still trying to take in the fact he’s really gone. “It hasn’t hit me yet,” she concedes, peering through the front door of her dad’s longtime Mississauga home. “He died peacefully in his sleep due to kidney failure and stroke complications.”

Peterson learned how to play the instrument that made him famous in his Montreal home, first under the tutelage of his father Daniel and later with his older sister Daisy watching over him. It was the late 1920s, a time when jazz was being born. By growing up in Canada, Peterson would be able to absorb the sounds of all the other pioneers while forging his own sound.

“He wasn’t part of the scene happening there with Charlie Parker and Bud Powell and Dizzy Gillespie,” recalls Ross Porter of Jazz FM in Toronto. “He was home in Montreal … That’s one of the reasons why he was unique. He was still listening to these other people but he wasn’t part of that scene and he developed a distinct style that was all his own.”

And many of the most famous wanted to be a part of that ‘distinct style.’ Over the years, Peterson played with such greats as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Roy Eldridge, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.

He enjoyed working with them as much as they enjoyed his performances. “There’s an extreme joy I get in playing that I’ve never been able to explain,” Peterson explained in 1996. “I can only transmit it through the playing; I can’t put it into words.”

But there weren’t words for the craft of this amazing man. He let his music do all the talking. And it spoke volumes.

The acclaim brought him an ever-growing audience, and soon he was playing not the modest jazz bars of his hometown but some of the biggest venues in the world – including New York’s Carnegie Hall. And it wasn’t just the people he played with that were impressive – it was those he performed for, as well. They included the Queen and then-U.S. President Richard Nixon.

Peterson overcame prejudice and poverty to win eight Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement nod in 1997, innumerable prizes from his peers, the Companion of the Order of Canada and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement. In all, he recorded nearly 200 albums, some of the most famous with partners Herb Ellis and Ray Brown, often cited as one of the world’s finest jazz threesomes. “You saw the greatness immediately,” Ellis recalled of his sometime partner. “He was awesome right away — always.”

Other peers agreed. “This is a great loss to the music industry not only in Canada but all over the world,” concurs jazz drummer Archie Alleyne. “He played piano like no one else has and no one else ever be will be able to play like that.

“No matter what kind of jazz they tried to create, Oscar is always on top of it and I hope all the young jazz pianists out there sit down and listen to what it should really sound like.”

Robbie Botos is an up-and-coming jazz pianist whose work drew praise from the master musician. “He’s definitely one of the main inspirations I have had since I was a kid,” he reveals.

Peterson was proudly Canadian but his greatness led many down to consider him an American. “I’ve achieved a funny kind of status in Canada,” he once related. “Most of it comes because I went to the United States and other places, and as a result of Canadians having seen me repeatedly on the television shows of people like Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin … I think that has weighed heavily with Canadians.”

His status allowed him special honours rarely afforded a mere mortal music man. He helped open Toronto’s Advanced School of Contemporary Music in 1960, but it failed for a lack of funding. He later served as an adjunct music professor at York University in the mid-1980s and became its chancellor from 1991 to 1994.

His health began to fail about 20 years ago, first stricken with the most terrible ailment that could befall a piano player – arthritis. He suffered a stroke in 1993 but recovered. But he never let age or infirmity get in the way of the music.

“Age doesn’t seem to enter into my thoughts to that great an extent,” he noted in 2001. “I just figure that the love I have of the instrument and my group and the medium itself works as a sort of a rejuvenating factor for me.”

Not to mention all those who heard him play.

In the end, music was as important to him as he was to it. “I love the piano, I love the medium and it’s what’s keeping me alive,” he once said. His recordings will continue to keep him alive for a very long time to come.

Peterson leaves behind a wife, a daughter, six children from two previous marriages and millions of fans. A private funeral is planned for later this week, followed by a public memorial and a celebration of his life in the New Year.

Colleagues and friends pay tribute to Peterson

Oscar Peterson: Fast Facts

Born: Montreal, Aug. 15, 1925.

Parents: Daniel and Kathleen, both immigrated to Canada from the West Indies in 1917.

Family: Married four times. Leaves behind wife Kelly, daughter Celine, and six other children from his previous marriages.

Beginnings: Started playing trumpet and piano at age 5. A year later contracted tuberculosis which damaged his lungs so he could no longer play trumpet. Focused on piano.

Co-workers: Has played with and befriended many jazz greats including Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker.

Quote: “It makes you want to sing.”
 — Ella Fitzgerald, at 74, about Peterson’s piano work.

Peterson’s Honours

1972: Appointed Officer in the Order of Canada.

1974: Won first Grammy for best jazz performance by a group for The Trio with Joe Pass and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen.

1977: Received the Queen’s Medal.

1978: Won Genie Award for best film score for “The Silent Partner”; inducted into Juno Hall of Fame.

1984: Promoted to Companion in the Order of Canada.

1987: Awarded George Peabody Medal.

1992: Awarded Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement.

1993: Won Gemini Award for best original musical score in a miniseries for “In The Key of Oscar.”

1997: Received Grammy for Lifetime Achievement and an International Jazz Hall of Fame Award.

1999: Received Praemium Imperiale Award, the Nobel equivalent for the arts.

2000: Citation from U.S. President Bill Clinton for achievements in the field of music; Awarded the UNESCO International Music Prize.

2001: Inaugural inductee to the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame; Received a commendation from the U.S. House of Representatives in recognition of contributions to society.

2003: Announcement of street named Oscar Peterson Boulevard in Mississauga.

2003: Oscar Peterson stamp issued by Canada Post.

2008: Peterson was to receive Founders Award from Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on March 1st in Toronto. Will now be presented posthumously.