Jazz Articles about Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson: On the Town

by David Rickert
May 1, 2001

Oscar Peterson is one of the musicians responsible for bringing jazz to a wider audience, and it's easy to understand why from listening to any of his instantly appealing records. He took the knuckle-busting runs of Art Tatum and wedded them to the delicate approach of Nat King Cole in a series of accomplished trio recordings, most of which are still widely available today. Not much of a pioneer, Peterson was content to play familiar songs at a consistently high ...

Oscar Peterson: On the Town

by David Rickert
March 1, 2001

Oscar Peterson is one of the musicians responsible for bringing jazz to a wider audience, and it's easy to understand why from listening to any of his instantly appealing records. He took the knuckle-busting runs of Art Tatum and wedded them to the delicate approach of Nat King Cole in a series of accomplished trio recordings, most of which are still widely available today. Not much of a pioneer, Peterson was content to play familiar songs at a consistently high ...

Oscar Peterson: Trail Of Dreams: A Canadian Suite

by AAJ Staff
December 1, 2000

As musicians mature, it seems they return to their original sources of musical inspiration, as David Sanchez did with Melaza or Danilo Pérez did with Motherland or Gonzalo Rubalcaba did with Antiguo. Well, Oscar Peterson attained maturity quite a while ago, and he wrote about his native country, Canada, in the 1960’s when he recorded Canadiana: Fields Of Endless Day. While Peterson’s earlier musical tribute to his country addressed the topic of Canada’s refuge for blacks escaping slavery through the ...

Oscar Peterson (OJC: Night Child

by Douglas Payne
January 1, 2000

This 1979 quartet recording makes an ideal blindfold test for the most practiced of jazz piano admirers. From the “oscillating Martianisms" on electric piano of the moody opening track, “Solar Winds," to the rollicking cop-show funk (!) of “Teenager," it would be difficult to name - or convince the listener - that this is Oscar Peterson. Indeed, it is. Even more surprisingly, it is one of those super- rare and highly welcome all-Peterson programs - which makes it ...

Oscar Peterson Quartet: Night Child

by Derek Taylor
January 1, 2000

Oscar Peterson is easily one of the most prolific pianists in the history of jazz music. His unrestrained and arguably self-indulgent recording career has periodically come under critical fire for its homogeneity and lack of appreciable innovative spirit. Still, his prowess in front of the keys is difficult to slight and his work on this disc is on par with his usual degree of virtuosity.

Taking Peterson’s mammoth discography into account this session is something of an oddity. On all ...

Oscar Peterson/Milt Jackson/Ray Brown: The Very Tall Band/Live At The Blue Note

by Mark Corroto
September 1, 1999

Sure I’m a fan of Tiger Woods, but sometimes I like to watch the Senior PGA Tour. Even though my heroes of yesterday Hale Irwin, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player don’t hit the ball as long or putt as well as the modern player, their games remind me of the glories of the past. Like the Senior Tour, the reunion of The Very Tall Band is memorable. Oscar Peterson isn’t as quick at the keyboards as his protégé Benny Green, ...

Oscar Peterson: Live at the Northsea Jazz Festival, 1980

by AAJ Staff
February 1, 1999

This isn’t Jazz at the Philharmonic, but the feeling is much the same. A loose jam session of familiar standards (plus two ringers, of which more later) played by some of the best. The veterans, having done this many times before, look at each other and then proceed to give the people what they came to see. You hear challenges, actions and reactions, beauty and energy, all in this reissue of the 2-LP set. (Due to time constraints, one tune ...