Biography
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (1925 – 2007) was a Canadian virtuoso pianist and jazz composer, considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.
He was born in Montreal, Quebec, on August 15, 1925, to immigrant parents from the West Indies. His mother was a domestic worker and his father worked as a porter while also being a self-taught trumpeter and pianist. Oscar grew up in the Little Burgundy neighborhood of Montreal, a predominantly black neighborhood where jazz music dominated. He began learning the trumpet from his father but a bout of tuberculosis at the age of seven forced him to turn all his attention to the piano. By the age of nine, Peterson was playing the piano so skillfully that he was impressing professional musicians. For many years, he practiced for 6 hours every day.
In 1940, at the age of 15, he won a national music competition organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and dropped out of Montreal High School to become a professional pianist. He worked on a weekly radio show and played in hotels and music halls. In his teens he was a member of the Johnny Holmes Orchestra. From 1945 to 1949 he worked in a trio and recorded for Victor Records. By the time he was 20, he had acquired a reputation as an excellent pianist.
During his career he will release more than 200 recordings. He has won seven Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award and many other awards and honors. He played in thousands of concerts around the world and collaborated with the most important jazz musicians.
Peterson was married four times and had seven children with three of his wives. He smoked heavily, was overweight and had arthritis from a young age. He had hip replacement surgery in the early 1990s. In 1993, a stroke weakened his left side and put him out of work for two years. In 2007 his health deteriorated. He canceled plans to perform at the Toronto Jazz Festival and a concert at Carnegie Hall that was to be given in his honor. He died on December 23, 2007, of kidney failure at his home in Mississauga, Ontario.