It didn't matter who Oscar performed with. You always see those musicians looking at him with smiles and admiration. There's a reason for this... he was a music machine, just brilliant.
His hero was Art Tatum. Shastakovich and Rachmaninoff moved to NYC and would buy whiskies and listen to Art Tatum. They said if Art did classical, they'd be out of jobs.
This is wonderful. I had the good fortune to see three giants, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, and Ella Fitzgerald, in a hall not much larger than this one appears to be, back in the ‘80s. What a night.
While people drool over amazingly-fast internet pianists who play their tunes note for note, Guys like Oscar are forever chased musically but never surpassed. We've seen him do this on ANYTHING hes playing and at moments notice. A true musical genius.
Saw Oscar Peterson with Ray brown and Louie Bellson headline the Berkeley Jazz Festival in 1979. The day was full of top line jazz groups, like Herbie Hancock’s VSOP. Peterson’s trio played for about 90 minutes. By the end his set, I had a vague memory of some groups that had come on earlier … I was in a cloud for two weeks afterward.
OMG, FANTASTICO!!! Modal scales were only created to explain why NONE of these notes sound wrong! Penn & Teller could not work out how "the band" joined in at 7.15:30!!!! Frickin' unbelievably awesome!!
I was watching an old lad episode of Perry Mason that had a guitarist in it, and I thought, “damn that sounds like Barney Kessel!” IMDB to the rescue, it was Barney Kessel.
in questo momento, Art Tatum, J.S. Bach, G. Gershwin, L. Van Beethoven, C. Debussy e lo stesso Peterson... stanno discorrendo di armonia su qualche nuvoletta in Paradiso
Astonishing playing. Whoever filmed it needs setting fire to. Trying to be clever with so many ridiculous close-ups and cutaways. I had to scroll down and just listen so I couldn't see the film.
