Oscar Peterson
July 2000

By Jim Santella

"Why wasn't this there when I needed it!"

That’s what pianist Makoto Ozone said after he experienced this multimedia presentation. PG Music has organized the project efficiently for use as a study guide, research tool, or simply for enjoyment. Setup is pretty simple. Just run it from the CD-ROM drive, or install it on your hard drive if you wish. The product is available only for Windows™ and not available for Macintosh. However, Connectix’ Virtual PC would enable you to run this CD-ROM on your Mac if that were your wish. All the facts concerning this reasonably-priced multimedia item are available at PG Music’s marketing site.

The program includes 18 of Oscar Peterson's original compositions. The album contains over one hour of performances altogether and two hours of audio commentary by the pianist. Ten MIDI transcriptions, provided by Miles Black, include controls that enable the viewer to change tempo and key. The MIDI transcriptions include "Riff Blues," "Blues Etude," "Ron’s Blues," "Kelly’s Blues" and "Texas Blues." Visual keyboards, in player piano fashion, provide you with movements of the keys as they take place, color-coded to distinguish left hand from the right. This audio/visual can be run alongside synchronized, moving musical notation. The album’s full-length video performances, from Peterson’s BBC television series, include "Place St. Henri," "City Lights," "Slow Blues," "The Theme" and "Love Ballade." Fourteen audio/video performances include "Night Time," "Big Scotia," "Nightingale" and "Hymn to Freedom."

The album’s complete discography, from 1945 to the present, is an electronic version of the hardcover work compiled by Francesco Fini and Luca Rigazio. This searchable database lets you answer your own questions in a jiffy. Recommended, Oscar Peterson Multimedia CD-ROM comes with a complete user guide for quick and easy data manipulation.