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FYI

A Podcast Conversation With ... Oscar Peterson

In this 1992 interview with the Canadian jazz great, the informality of the setting and Peterson’s ease in responding to the questions made the exchanges a step beyond the conventional. Hear more in this FYI podcast.

A Podcast Conversation With ... Oscar Peterson

By Bill King

I spent the past week sifting through cassettes of past interviews - some dating back to my days at Q-107 and Q-Jazz in 1985. Conversations with the titans of jazz. One such cassette contains an interview with Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson just after the release of In the Key of Oscar in 1992, an excellent documentary produced by Oscar’s niece Sylvia Sweeney, daughter of Oscar’s sister and first piano teacher – Daisy Peterson. Sweeney herself is a decorated Olympian in basketball, an Order of Canada recipient and champion of many social causes.


The informality of the setting and Peterson’s ease in responding to the questions made the exchanges a step beyond the conventional. A musician asks far different questions than a DJ or talking head, much like someone who has played the game of baseball and works themselves from the bottom up into the broadcasting booth.

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Peterson experienced a stroke in 1993 after undergoing hip replacement surgery and playing at the Blue Note nightclub. It’s hard to grasp what went through Peterson’s mind for the next fourteen years till his passing in 2007. Yet, the thousands of concerts performed over 60 years, hundreds of recordings, and the many citations and celebrations in his name tell much about the man and the piano he so cherished.

Oscar is that bridge between the past and the present – Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Nat Cole, Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines and Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett. No one swings harder or plays with such a lilting touch.

Oscar Peterson! Learn more in this week's FYIMUSICNEWS.ca Podcast!

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7 Best Moments from Tyler, The Creator's Chromakopia Tour in Montreal

The Los Angeles rapper delivered a blockbuster, sold-out show at Bell Centre on Tuesday (July 22), even if it left out music from his just-released new album Don't Tap The Glass.

Tyler, The Creator played his first concert since the release of his new album Don't Tap The Glass on Tuesday (July 22) at Montreal's Bell Centre, but it was still heavily focused around CHROMAKOPIA.

The rapper is still on the tour for his critically acclaimed 2024 album, and played the second of three dates in Canada — following a stop at Rogers Arena in Vancouver back in February (Feb. 28) and ahead of his Toronto show at Scotiabank Arena (July 24). The international trek is Tyler's biggest production yet, packing out 20,000-cap arenas. CHROMAKOPIA was one of his most successful projects, landing atop the Billboard 200 and the Canadian Albums chart last year with just four days of tracking.

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