Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
If Art Tatum was the “God” of the jazz piano, then his protege, Oscar Peterson, was his only-begotten son. Peterson died of kidney failure Sunday at his home in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga. He was 82.
From the time of his emergence in the early ‘40s, Peterson’s classically trained and blues-hued brilliance set the standard for jazz piano excellence. He was born to Jamaican immigrant parents in Montreal on Aug. 15, 1925. His classical studies started when he was 6, and eight years later he won a local talent competition. He went on to appear regularly on a Montreal radio station with the Johnny Holmes Orchestra. When Norman Granz heard Peterson, the young pianist had amalgamated the styles of Tatum, Erroll Garner and Nat “King” Cole. Impressed by his talent, Granz featured him in Carnegie Hall in his Jazz At The Philharmonic concerts and he signed him to his Verve record label. With an instrumentation that featured bass, guitar and piano, Peterson formed a popular trio with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis in the 1950s.
Later, drummer Ed Thigpen would be added and the combo worked steadily for the next two decades. His tribute to his homeland, The Canadian Suite was nominated for a Grammy in 1965, and his nod to Cole, With Respect To Nat, is one of his best loved recordings. He also recorded with Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie, among numerous collaborations.
In addition to the trio, Peterson performed and recorded in a number of configurations from solo piano to orchestral, always setting the keyboard standard.
In 1984, Peterson was elected by the Readers into the Down Beat Hall of Fame.
“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
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