Oscar

Canadian author Reva Marin’s biography Oscar (2003) chronicles the life and career of Oscar Peterson, a Canadian jazz pianist who won eight Grammy Awards and played with a number of famed musicians including Count Basie and Herbie Hancock.

On August 15, 1925, Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was born to two immigrants from the West Indies living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Oscar's father, Daniel Peterson, worked on trains as a porter for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Daniel was also an amateur pianist and trumpeter. Growing up in Montreal's predominantly black Little Burgundy neighborhood, combined with his father's musicality and teachings, helped Oscar develop an appreciation for jazz at an early age. By the age of five, Oscar had become proficient at the trumpet and the piano. At the age of seven, Oscar developed a bout of tuberculosis. Although he survived, the doctors told his family he would never play the trumpet again. Oscar shifted his musical attention to focus entirely on the piano. In addition to playing jazz riffs, Oscar learned classical piano from his sister Daisy. Before long, Oscar was obsessed with playing classical etudes and for a brief period abandoned jazz. He took lessons from the Hungarian-born Paul de Marky, who studied under piano virtuoso Istvan Thoman who himself studied under Franz Liszt, one of history's most celebrated pianists and composers.

The allure of jazz, ragtime, and other genres enjoyed in his neighborhood proved too powerful, however. By the age of 14, Oscar had already earned a reputation among local musicians and enthusiasts as "the Brown Bomber of the Boogie Woogie," a reference to the heavyweight boxing champion of the world Joe Louis. Throughout his youth and into adulthood, Oscar never failed to practice four to six hours a day. His practice paid off in 1940 when he won the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's national music competition. Oscar dropped out of high school to become a full-time professional musician, playing in music halls and hotels around the city and hosting a weekly radio show.



In 1949, when Oscar was 23, the New York-based jazz impresario Norman Granz heard Oscar playing a live club performance on the radio while in a taxicab on the way to the Montreal airport. Among the jazz musicians who worked with Granz at one point or another were Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and Count Basie. Granz was so blown away by Oscar's ability that he canceled his flight and asked the cab driver to take him to the club where the recording took place. After meeting Oscar, Granz became his manager on the spot, a relationship that would last most of Oscar's career. That same year, Granz introduced Oscar to the United States at New York City's Carnegie Hall for its Jazz at the Philharmonic concert series.

Oscar's bond with Granz was reportedly more than that of a client and a manager. For example, when Granz traveled with Oscar in the segregationist South, he frequently stood up for Oscar and other black jazz musicians who were denied certain services, even as they were booked to play at some of the biggest venues in the country. For example, in the early 1950s when Oscar was performing in the South in a trio with bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis, Granz reportedly refused to back down when a gun-wielding police officer demanded that Oscar and Brown—both black men—vacate a whites-only taxicab.

In addition to Oscar's work with the Oscar Peterson Trio, he played duo performances with a number of high-profile jazz musicians, including Count Basie and Herbie Hancock throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Also, in the 1960s, Oscar founded and led the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. The school remained open for five years, but without government funding and with Oscar's demanding touring schedule, the institution shut down. Oscar, however, would remain a mentor and educator for the rest of his career. In 1974, Oscar won his first Grammy Award for his album The Trio, which won the prize for Best Jazz Performance by a Group. Oscar would win seven more Grammys, including a 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award.



Oscar continued to record and perform live, though his piano-playing became hindered after a 1993 stroke limited his mobility on the left side of his body. Of Oscar's post-stroke playing ability, friend and Canadian politician Bob Rae said, "A one-handed Oscar was better than just about anyone with two hands." In 2007, Oscar's health began to decline dramatically. On December 23 of that year, at the age of 82, Oscar died of kidney failure.

Oscar is a solid and comprehensive biography detailing the career of one of Canada's greatest jazz musicians.