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Oscar Peterson |
The Champ
Oscar Peterson, 1925-2007
Pierre Tristam / Candide’s Notebooks, December 24, 2007
The great Oscar Peterson, whose breezy keyboard ripples and humorous melodies could turn any drab corner of the world into the hippest jazz club as long as he played, died on Sunday at 82 in Toronto. He was in the words of Duke Ellington the “Maharajah of the keyboard,” and was positioning himself just a few weeks ago to be the Maharajah of his own blog: “I am very happy to say I am back,” he wrote at his site on November 27. “Let me assure you that I will try my best to keep up with providing you with new Journal entries, and updates on what I am doing. I am looking forward to it.” Those would be his last electronically public words. His liver failed. As always, it would be ridiculous to greet the death of greats with mourning. Why play into death's crabby hands when we could be celebrating? And the only way to celebrate Oscar Peterson's death is to be thankful for his 82 years and innumerable recordings. Here are four tunes that even Christ in his measly manger will appreciate tonight, Bethlehem, the way it's been, being nothing like the welcoming center that an Oscar Peterson booze and smoke joint would be. All in mp3 format:
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