Monday, September 14, 2009

Little Burgundy Celebrates A Jazz Legend -- Oscar Peterson Park Inaugurated

Jazz pianist Oliver Jones beside the sign for Oscar Peterson Park in Little Burgundy yesterday: "Young people, especially in the black community, don't know about the athletes and boxers and musicians that came out of this neighbourhood." Photograph by: PHIL CARPENTER; THE GAZETTE, The Gazette

From The Montreal Gazette:

Almost two years after his great friend and mentor died, Oliver Jones sat back on his chair on a makeshift bandstand in Little Burgundy yesterday and remembered one of the last things Oscar Peterson said to him.

The two great jazz pianists, with some 23 doctorates between them, had just met with Queen Elizabeth II and were back in Peterson's Toronto home. "He said to me: 'Our fathers would never believe what happened to us,' " Jones, 75, recalled.

Read more ....

No comments: