R.I.P.: Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson
(b: 15.Aug.1925, Montreal, Quebec/Candad; d: 24.Dec.2007, Mississauga, Ontario/Canada)

Jazz # 1 virtuoso pianist EVER, Oscar Peterson has died at his home in Mississauga, Canada, on December 24th at the age of 82 of kidney failure. Peterson played in Canada in the 1940s then became famous when Norman Granz engaged him for a Jazz at the Philharmonic Carnegie Hall concert in 1949. He worked in several trio settings with musicians such as Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, but regularly also with Jazz at the Philharmonic and with many famous jazz musicians from Louis Armstrong to Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and many others. His big influences were Teddy Wilson and Nat King Cole, but also Art Tatum, whom he often has been compared to because of his immense technique. During most of his recording career Peterson recorded for several Granz labels, but in the 60s also for the German MPS label based in the Black Forest. Obituaries: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Washington Post (I); Washington Post (II); Washington Post (III); Washington Post (IV); Los Angeles Times; San Francisco Chronicle; Guardian; The Independent;Die Welt; die tageszeitung; Wall Street Journal; The Boston Globe.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/arts/25petersoncnd.html?th&emc=th