Monday, December 24, 2007

R.I.P Oscar Peterson

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Photo courtesy of the Monterey Jazz Festival.

I'm truly saddened by the passing of the great Oscar Peterson.
At some point in the late 80's, I somehow got my hands on a free government magazine-sized booklet of great Canadians. The bio blurb and illustration of Oscar was my intro to him. At that time, I wasn't aware of any great Canadians, let alone any great black Canadians, so I was transfixed. I signed out the Verve Walkman® Jazz (known as Compact Jazz on CD) comp from Cornish Library, and from there, my love for Oscar's flying fingers and jazz in general started.
I know it's Christmas time, but if you've got it, put Canadiana Suite on. That album is so sublime, especially "Wheatland".

1 comment:

TRoyal said...

"At that time, I wasn't aware of any great Canadians, let alone any great black Canadians, so I was transfixed."

You mean there are? I'm only half kidding. Grant Fuhr was the first "famous" Afro-Canadian I had heard of.