Tuesday, December 25, 2007

thank you, mr. peterson.



Rest easy, Sir.

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, b. 1925 d. 2007

4 comments:

mrtn said...

The white bass player in the background of this clip, who comes in for the second half and plays the second bass solo (after Ray Brown, I'm pretty sure it is) is Niels Henning "The Dane With the Never-Ending Name" Ørsted-Pedersen. He was my big role model as a bass player and one of my favourite musicians for a long time. I finally got to interview him for my jazz show at the Student Radio I used to work at. We talked for 45 minutes at the end of February 05, just a few days after this clip was taken. He was just wonderful. A generous, open-minded, intelligent and interesting character and a great musician who seemed at peace with himself. A month and a half or so later, he died suddenly from a stroke. I don't think he was more than 55 or so. Here he is playing "Bye Bye Blackbird" with Christian McBride at a concert in honour of Ray Brown (whom I believe is the first bass player in your clip of Oscar Peterson.)

The best thing I ever heard Peterson play was a cover of "I skovens dype stille ro" ("in the deep quiet of the forest" - a traditional-ish Scandinavian song) on one of NHØPs solo albums. Peterson had just had a stroke himself and was playing only with his left hand.

suttonhoo said...

such good listening -- great story too -- thank you.

Anonymous said...

nothin but nice right there

Friendly Joe said...

Rarely does the passing of a public figure sadden me, but I'll miss Oscar acutely.
What a gift he had, and was.

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