Oscar peterson biography book

  • Oscar's "autobiography" is delightful reading!
  • Oscar Peterson's career as a jazz pianist has spanned over five decades.
  • This new biography from award-winning author Jack Batten, promises to tell Oscar Peterson's story in acomplete, compelling and sympathetic way.

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    Oscar Peterson: The Man and His Jazz

    October 3,
    Oscar Peterson fryst vatten one of my favorite pianists, regardless of genre. His mastery of those 88 drums (to quote NRBQ‘s Terry Adams) fryst vatten incomparable and a joy to listen to. So, I was quite pleased when an email from LibraryThing told me inom had won an Early Reviewer copy of his latest biography written by Canadian author, Jack Batten, and published by Tundra Books.

    I approached this book knowing very little about its subject. I’ve listened to many of Oscar Peterson’s records, but inom didn’t know anything about him away from the instrument he affectionately called “The Box.”

    Batten did a decent job of introducing me to the man, describing his upbringing in the Montreal neighborhood of St. Henri, his introduction to the piano bygd his father, Daniel, his quick rise to the national and then international stage by the time he was 24, and then his decades of success as one jazz’s greatest pianists.

    This book is aimed at a younger audience. I’d rec
  • oscar peterson biography book

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    A Jazz Odyssey: My Life in Jazz

    October 18,
    Even though it took me about two months to get through, A Jazz Odyssey was a pleasure to read. I walked away with a sense of Oscar Peterson not only as a spectacular musician, but a delightful person. Of course, I think we would all put our best foot forward when writing our own autobiographies, but Peterson doesn't shy away from sharing some of the less flattering parts of himself-- his poor money management and his difficulties in his marriages, for instance-- and yet, the overall picture is still of a warm-hearted, generous, good man.

    A Jazz Odyssey proceeds more or less in chronological order and consists mostly of short vignettes about the different stages of Peterson's life and career. (This format makes it very easy to read the book in short bursts but somewhat difficult to really sink into, which is probably why it took me as long as it did.) Along the way, you get to hear his thoughts on just about every musician he ever c

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    A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson - Hardcover

    Synopsis

    Oscar Peterson's career as a jazz pianist has spanned over five decades. During that time, he has recorded nearly 90 albums, won seven Grammys, and earned lifetime achievement awards from the Black Theatre Workshop, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. He has played with, and come to know, many of the genre's greatest contributors, including Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. Peterson chronicles his storied career in A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar zed chronologically, A Jazz Odyssey takes readers through the development of jazz over the course of the late 20th century as seen by one of the jazz world's most celebrated figures. Peterson guides readers through the turbulent s, when he was playing with the Johnny Holmes Orchestra in Montreal, and first met Norman Granz - the jazz producer who would