Oscar Peterson at the Friar’s Tavern in Toronto, with drummer Edmund Thigpen and bassist Ray Brown, June 14, 1963.John Boyd/The Globe and Mail
After a music critic had requested an interview with Oscar Peterson, the great jazz pianist himself called the writer. "What's your interest," he asked straight away, "in talking to me?"
The writer answered that he was intrigued that Peterson had stuck with the piano while others had long switched over to electronic keyboards.
The reply was more than adequate; the writer was invited to Peterson's home in Mississauga, where the musician's Bosendorfer Imperial Grand enjoyed pride of place.
It still does. In fact, the instrument was used by Chick Corea, Monty Alexander, Benny Green and other ivory-striking luminaries on Oscar, With Love, a forthcoming tribute album.
Peterson would have turned 90 on Aug. 15, a date to be commemorated by the National Arts Centre in Ottawa with a concert on the corner of Elgin and Albert streets, in the melodious shadow of a life-sized Peterson effigy.
You can't miss it: a wide-smiling man, seated at a bronze version of his cherished piano, in perpetuity.