Senin, 24 Desember 2007

Jazz giant Oscar Peterson dead at 82 (AFP)

MONTREAL (AFP) - Legendary jazz pianist and composer Oscar Peterson has died at the age of 82, friends said Monday, sounding the final note for one of the most celebrated musical careers of the 20th century.

The Canadian, who reportedly died of kidney failure late Sunday, played with all the greats during his six decades in the business with a versatile style that ranged from boogie-woogie to stride to bebop.

Jazz musician Oliver Jones bemoaned the "terrible, terrible loss" of his long-time friend.

"But Im very happy that he died the way that he wanted to, at home, with his family around him," he told CBC television.

The Montreal native died at his home in Mississauga, near Toronto, CBC and Radio-Canada reported.

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, another of Petersons many friends, said: "The world has lost the worlds greatest jazz player."

Opposition Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion said he felt "the grief of the millions of fans with whom Oscar Peterson shared the tremendous gift of his remarkable music."

Peterson defied arthritis and ill health in his later years, and continued to record despite suffering a stroke while performing at New Yorks Blue Note club in 1993 that impaired his left hand.

Even one-handed, he was "still light years ahead of everyone else," according to jazz broadcaster Ross Porter.

"Age doesnt seem to enter into my thought to that great an extent," Peterson said in 2001, according to the Toronto Star newspaper.

"I just figure that the love I have of the instrument and my group and the medium itself works as a sort of a rejuvenating factor for me."

His studio and live partners comprised a roll call of legends, including Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole and Stan Getz.

A genius at improvisation, Peterson recalled in 2005 how the heat of live free-form jazz could give birth to "moments of great beauty."

The Canadian, who won seven Grammy awards for individual recordings plus the Grammy for Lifetime Achievement in 1997, was born in August 1925 to a railway porter father from the West Indies who was a talented amateur pianist.

Overcoming tuberculosis aged seven, young Peterson came under the tutelage of Hungarian classical pianist Paul de Marky, who taught the budding jazz great "technique and speedy fingers."

After winning a CBC radio talent show aged 14, Peterson went on to drop out of school and play on a weekly jazz program before hitting the hotels and music halls of Montreal.

Overcoming the overt racism of the era, in 1943 he became the first black musician to play in a dance music orchestra in Montreal. He later became a noted campaigner for civil rights both in Canada and the United States.

Petersons international career got off to a sensational start when he played with well-established stars at New Yorks Carnegie Hall in 1949 at the invitation of impresario Norman Granz, who became his manager.

Peterson formed his first band in 1951 and a later trio with Herb Ellis and Ray Brown was cited by afficionados as one of the worlds finest jazz groups.

"You saw the greatness immediately," Ellis said of Peterson. "He was awesome right away -- always."

Peterson regularly toured European clubs and concert halls, often accompanied by the stellar voice of Ella Fitzgerald. "It makes you want to sing," Fitzgerald, who died in 1996, remarked of Petersons piano playing.

Peterson recorded nearly 200 albums. Perhaps his best-known composition was 1964s Canadiana Suite, each of whose eight tracks was inspired by a region of his homeland.

Married four times, Peterson leaves behind six children.

 
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