Wednesday January 2, 2008
Farewell, Oscar
The year 2008 feels a little colder than 2007 – and not because of the weather. Oscar Peterson died two days before Christmas.
I never knew Oscar personally. But I knew people who did know him. Which is, after all, the way most of us get to know those who actually change the world. Even Jesus told his disciples that most people would have to get to know him through them.
Oscar Peterson had lots of disciples.
The one I knew best was a tiny man – almost the opposite of Peterson\’s bulk – named Al McNab. Al worked the night shift as Music Director for radio station CJOR in Vancouver. It wasn\’t supposed to be the night shift, but he came to the station after playing jazz piano until 2:00 a.m., and then organized the music for the next day\’s programs.
Al tried to teach me about chord progressions, without much success. He had more success playing vinyl LPs of his heroes: Previn, Brubeck, Monk, Garner…
But he always turned to the legendary Art Tatum as his ultimate example.
In the 1950s, Peterson was just beginning his climb to international fame. His famous Carnegie Hall concert happened barely a decade before.
Al would pull out Oscar Peterson\’s early albums. “This guy,” he assured me, “is the next Art Tatum.”
And he was. After his death, the British Guardian newspaper editorialized, “No one in the history of the art form, short of the great Art Tatum, can ever have played jazz piano with quite the same exuberance, verve, and technical majesty as Oscar Peterson.”
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For a lighter look at ethics, faith, and life, I recommend Ralph Milton\’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it at the Wood Lake Books home page in Ralph Milton\’s Site, or by sending a note directly to [email protected].
It\’s also worth pursuing Charlene Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
Those of us who play with words like to suggest that words are our primary vehicle of communication. It\’s not true – we also communicate through touch, through art, through music.
"There\’s an extreme joy I get in playing that I\’ve never been able to explain," Peterson said in a 1996 interview. "I can only transmit it through the playing; I can\’t put it into words."
Of all musical forms, it seems to me, jazz offers the best analogy for life. Every day, like every performance, is an improvisation. You know the basic melody – and the chord progressions Al McNab tried to teach me – but what you do with that melody depends on how you and the people around you interact.
Guitarist Lorne Lofsky, who plays with Peterson\’s quartet in the 1980s, referred to “situations where you never know what\’s going to happen from one moment to the next.”
There\’s no script, no conductor; you collaborate creatively, or you crash…
Obituaries suggested that memorial donations be sent to Christian Children\’s Fund or World Vision. All his life, Oscar Peterson was a religious man. On one occasion, Peterson put on an impromptu concert during Sunday morning worship at Toronto\’s Bloor Street United Church.
Until I read those obituaries, I had never known that his middle name was Emmanuel – the Hebrew word meaning “God with us.”
It seems appropriate. Oscar Peterson was not God, but in his music, God surely rejoiced.
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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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