Oscar Peterson Dead At 82

[Yuri]

Canadian & World Jazz great Oscar Peterson died today at his home in Mississauga Ontario.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/288525

Yuri

[charlene]

omigoodness..he's been ill for a while now with different ailments..
terribly sad to hear this news...
He just set up a new website and seemed so upbeat about things: his lst posting was nov.28..
http://oscarpeterson.com/news/

[Kerstin]

This is sooo sad. He was such an amazing pianist. He made even me like Jazz.

[johnfowles]

I have just read in today's UK Daily Telrgraph that one of my favourite Canadian artists died on Christmas Eve at the age of 82 from Kidney failure having survived a stroke in 1993
and now I find yat Yuri posted on the actual day, buit then both he and Oscar live(d) in Mississuaga
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2007/12/26/db2601.jpg
Oscar Peterson who led a regular trio through several changes of personnel and continued to tour until this year
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/26/db2601.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_26122007 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/26/db2601.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_26122007In)In (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/26/db2601.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_26122007In) my time at university I was much drawn to modern Jazz especially Dave Brubeck and his wonderful saxophonist Paul Desmond and I well remember a pair of concerts at the Hammersmith (London) Odeon featuring Oscar and Ella Fitzgerald
At the time the theatre would invite students from my college (about 6 miles away) to help serving ice creams and progammes in return we could then see the concerts for free, not a bad arrangement at all!! I must admit that I was not then nor since particularly enamoured of Ella's style but Oscar was wonderful. During one of Ella's two performances I stood behind the very back row and was suddenly aware of a massive presence next to me. I actually got Oscar's autograph on (I think) my programme but although I still have a programme copy here there is sadly no autograph on it.
Later Oscar did a series of specials on BBC television and after William (Count) Basie's death in 1984 the Beeb rebroadcast the episode in which a clearly very deferential Oscar played on one of two identical Bosendorfer grand pianos (a company now just acquired by Yamaha I see)

http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/images/Oscar_and_the_Count.jpg

and both legends proceeded to royally take the piss out of each other. the complete show I have on an old UK PAL Betamax videotape soon to be digitised into a DVD. It lasts I think a full hour but I now find that some turned on soul has uploaded a 4 1/2 minute sampling segment of this to youtube at:-
YouTube - Oscar Peterson & Count Basie - Slow Blues

This is also on myspacetv:-
http://www.findinternettv.com/Video,item,1093801756.aspx
IMHO you do not need to either like or understand jazz to really enjoy this

[charlene]

http://www.canadapost.ca/personal/collecting/stampquest/eng/oscar-e.asp
I'm glad CanPost honoured him while he was still here to enjoy it..2005.
A street in Mississauga was named for him in 2003.
He played with all the great jazz vocalists and musicians.. and played Carnegie Hall several times..:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071224.wobpeterson1224/BNStory/Entertainment

[Jesse Joe]

This was very sad to hear. :(

[charlene]

Sat.Jan.12 - free tribute concert..listen on CBC radio as well.
No tickets for Peterson event

People to be admitted on first-come basis day of tribute; memorial to be broadcast on CBC

Jan 03, 2008 04:30 AM
Martin Knelman

Many people have been asking: "How do I get tickets for the Oscar Peterson memorial concert?"

The answer is: You don't. Simply the Best, as the 90-minute event on Jan. 12 is being officially called, will be a no-ticket event, with free admission.

"We're treating it as if it were a church service," says Charles Cutts, CEO of Roy Thomson Hall, which is playing host to the 4 p.m. event. People will be admitted on a first-come basis, with doors opening at 3 p.m.

It's a strategic decision meant to avoid the negative consequences of ticketed free events.

For example, many of those who lined up for free tickets to the Richard Bradshaw tribute at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts did not turn up for the concert. The result: empty seats, despite the fact there were thousands of disappointed opera lovers who couldn't get tickets.

Another pitfall became apparent at the Lincoln Center memorial event for Beverly Sills, the queen of New York opera. The lineup for tickets started at 5:30 a.m. Even though they were free, scalpers had a good day pocketing money from fans who arrived after all the tickets had been given away.

There are approximately 2,500 seats at Roy Thomson Hall. About 200 will be reserved for VIP guests. It's open season on the other 2,300 seats.

Those who can't be there in person can listen to CBC, which has agreed to broadcast the proceedings live on Radio One (99.1 FM in Toronto) at 4 p.m., with a repeat broadcast the same day at 8 p.m. on Radio Two.

Talent bulletin: the lineup will include Sharon Riley & Faith Chorale, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, and the University of Toronto Gospel Choir, as well as previously announced Measha Brueggergosman. And TD Canada Trust has come on board as a sponsor.

But once the music and the speeches have faded away, will Toronto build a lasting memorial to the great jazz pianist? A wonderful precedent exists in the form of the superb Glenn Gould sculpture outside the CBC Broadcast Centre on Front St. W. A perfect spot for an Oscar Peterson statue would be outside Massey Hall.
--------------------------

Diana Krall may also attend..Oscar was her inspiration in becoming a jazz artist.

[Jesse Joe]

I did hear this last night on TV, free seats to the Roy Thomson Hall. That's another great concert hall in To... I remember seeing a Good Brothers concert on Pay TV in the early 80's, w/ guest: Ozark Mountains and Gordon Lightfoot which he did Knotty Pine with his electric gibson. I do have it on tape. At the begining one of The Good Brothers said walking in the RTH, "Im lost."

Char have you ever been inside that hall ? :)



http://www.bitstop.ca/pictures/Toronto/roy_thompson_hall.jpg



http://ismailimail.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/roythomson1.jpg

[charlene]

I was there during opening week when Lightfoot performed..
I think I was there another time..hmm..just thinking..gosh I can't remember..I'll get back to ya..
lol

[Jesse Joe]

okeedookee !

[johnfowles]

Jimmy Giuffre
Earlier we had to report that Oscar Peterson had passed away at 82
Last week I reported on Humph (Humphrey Lyttleton) who went to that great jamming session in the sky at 84
Today there is an obit in the UK Daily Telegraph for another revered jazzman who has just died at 86
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1918688/Jimmy-Giuffre.html?DCMP=EMC-new_02052008
Somewhere I think I still have a superb video of arguably the best ever jazz film called
"Jazz On A Summer's Day" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_on_a_Summer's_Day)
a 1960 documentary film set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island which features a teriffic list of jazz greats (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052942/)
including amongst a stellar cast Mahalia Jackson and Theloneus Monk (a.k.a. "The Loneliest Plunk"), "Satchel Mouth" (Lewis Armstrong),Chuck My Ding-a-Ling Berry, George Shearing (http://www.corfid.com/name/nm0790471/) and Jack Teagarden (http://www.corfid.com/name/nm0853524/)
Better still I have found a torrent (http://www.mininova.org/tor/1001177) for the complete DVD, A 699 MB avi file that will when I get it and convert to an SD media card storable flash video format play on my shiny new Nokia N800 wonder device
No on second thoughts I found and bought a still sealed copy of the pukka DVD in the 'new and used section" at amazon.com for total of $22.75
As usual my dial up connection coughed and spluttered so that that seemingly simple task took an agonising 20 minutes to complete and then only after I sussed out that the vital "add to cart " image and link were refusing to appear.
Fortunately while waiting impatiently I was simultaneously google image searching for a suitably large image of the DVD which appeared in due course:-
http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/large_images/939/40127939.jpg
after even more thumb twiddling on a competitor's sales page:-
http://www.buy.com/prod/jazz-on-a-summers-day/q/loc/322/40127939.html
which was even slower loading than amazon and turned out to be all of 4 cents more expensive. so amazon got my order

Meanwhile I must dig out my VHS video because for the opening sequence
there is a wonderful series of mainly overhead views of the two yachts
the US defender Columbia and the British Challenger
Funny that those are the names of the two lost Space shuttles. coincidence or what??
Sceptre
which If I remember correctly was brilliantly accompanied by the haunting saxophone of Jimmy Giuffre playing "The Train And The River"
YouTube - Jimmy Giuffre
http://images.net3media.com/funnyfreepics/coffee_tower.jpg

[johnfowles]

My memory was perfectly correct. Here is another youtube video for your enlightenment

YouTube - Jazz On A Summer's Day Opening