Oscar Peterson

Childhood, Family and Education

Oscar Peterson was the fourth of five children. He was raised in the poor St. Henri neighbourhood of Montreal, also known as Little Burgundy. His parents hailed from St. Kitts and the British Virgin Islands. (See also Caribbean Canadians.) His mother, Kathleen, was a domestic worker. His father, Daniel, was a boatswain in the Merchant Marines who became a porter with the Canadian Pacific Railway. A self-taught amateur organist and strict disciplinarian, he led the family band in concerts at churches and community halls. He insisted that all of the Peterson children learn piano and a brass instrument. Each in turn taught the next youngest child.

Oscar began playing trumpet and piano at age five. He focused solely on piano at age eight following a year-long battle with tuberculosis. (The disease claimed the life of his eldest brother, Fred, at age 16.) Oscar’s first instructor was his sister, Daisy. She became a respected piano teacher in Montreal’s Black community. Her later pupils included the jazz musicians Oliver Jones, Joe Sealy and Reg Wilson. Peterson’s brother, Chuck, became a professional trumpet player. His other sister, May, taught piano. She also worked for a time as Oscar’s personal assistant.

Peterson studied piano during his youth and teens with teachers of widely different backgrounds. At the age of 12, he briefly took piano lessons from Louis Hooper, a classically trained Canadian veteran of the Harlem jazz scene of the 1920s. Later, Peterson attended the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. At 14, he studied with Paul de Marky, a Hungarian concert pianist in the 19th-century tradition of Franz Liszt. Peterson was also a classmate of trumpet player Maynard Ferguson. They played together in a dance band led by Maynard’s brother, Percy.

Early Career

At age 14, Peterson entered an amateur contest sponsored by radio personality Ken Soble. (He was encouraged to enter by his sister Daisy, who also helped pay for his studies.) Oscar won the $250 first prize. Shortly thereafter, he began his own weekly radio show, Fifteen Minutes Piano Rambling, on the Montreal station CKAC. In 1941, he was featured on CBM’s Rhythm Time. By 1945, he was heard nationally on the CBC’s Light Up and Listen and The Happy Gang.

Peterson’s growing command of the keyboard reflected his classical background. However, the influence of the popular American pianists Nat King Cole, Teddy Wilson and especially his idol, Art Tatum, steered him towards a future in jazz. Even a chronic case of arthritis, which first became apparent in his teens, could not slow his progress. During his teen years, he received offers from Jimmie Lunceford and Count Basie to move to the US and join their bands. His parents felt he was too young and wouldn’t allow it.

Oscar Peterson emerged as a celebrity in Montreal’s music scene in the early 1940s. He dropped out of high school at age 17 to play as a featured soloist in Johnny Holmes’s popular (and otherwise white) dance band from 1943 to 1947. Peterson’s father was skeptical of letting his son leave school to pursue a career in music. He reportedly told Oscar, “If you’re going to go out there and be a piano player, don’t just be another one. Be the best.”

Canada’s First Jazz Star

Peterson made his first recordings for RCA Victor in March 1945. These early releases, notably “I Got Rhythm” and “The Sheik of Araby,” reveal the talent for boogie-woogie that earned him the nickname “the brown bomber of boogie-woogie.” They also reveal the extraordinary technique that would characterize his playing throughout his career. Peterson made sixteen 78s (32 songs in total) for RCA Victor between 1945 and 1949, The last of these suggest the influence of bebop. These songs were compiled on CD by BMG France in 1994; they were repackaged by BMG Canada in 1996 as The Complete Young Oscar Peterson (1945–1949).

The popularity of these records established Peterson as the first jazz star that Canada could truly call its own. His exposure on CBC Radio and his two tours of Western Canada in 1946 also contributed to his growing fame. By 1947, he was headlining Montreal’s Alberta Lounge with his own trio. It consisted of Austin “Ozzie” Roberts on bass and Clarence Jones on drums. (Guitarist Ben Johnson occasionally subbed in for Jones.) The trio was heard on Montreal radio station CFCF in broadcasts from the lounge. The other recorded document of Peterson’s Montreal years is the soundtrack for Norman McLaren’s innovative and award-winning National Film Board short, Begone Dull Care (1949).

By the end of the 1940s, Peterson had all but exhausted the limited jazz market in Canada. Word of his talent had spread to the US. Following a tour to Montreal, Dizzy Gillespie told composer and record producer Leonard Feather, “There’s a pianist up here who’s just too much. You’ve never heard anything like it! We gotta put him in concert.” However, Feather took no action. Similarly, American jazz impresario and record producer Norman Granz heard about Peterson through Coleman Hawkins and Billy Strayhorn. But Granz also failed to reach out to the Canadian pianist until a 1949 visit to Montreal. Granz was on his way to the airport to leave the city when he heard Peterson playing on the radio from the Alberta Lounge. He told the cab driver to take him there immediately.

American Introduction

Granz became Peterson’s manager. He decided to introduce Peterson to American audiences at a Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall on 18 September 1949. The lineup for the show included such jazz greats as Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, Roy Eldridge and Lester Young. Granz couldn’t secure Peterson a work visa in time for the show. So, he planted him in the audience and brought the six-foot-three, 240-pound 24-year-old onstage as a surprise guest. Peterson’s performance with bassist Ray Brown caused a sensation. DownBeat magazine wrote that it “stopped the concert dead cold in its tracks.” The appearance was a watershed moment for Peterson. It marked the beginning of an international career of remarkable productivity and distinction.

Career Highlights

Norman Granz became a close friend and was Peterson’s manager until 1988. Under his guidance, Peterson toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1950 to 1952. His bravura performances, both in concert and on record, immediately captured the imagination of the American public. The growth and persistence of Peterson’s popularity was reflected in his first-place standing in the piano category of DownBeat magazine’s readers’ poll 15 times in 23 years: in 1950–54, 1958–63, 1965–67 and 1972. He also won the magazine’s critics’ poll in 1953, in addition to many other such polls.

Peterson made his first American recordings for Granz’s label, Verve, in 1950 with Ray Brown as his bassist. Their version of “Tenderly” was especially popular. In 1951, Peterson formed a trio with Brown (who would be a stalwart of Peterson’s groups for the next 15 years) and drummer Charlie Smith. Smith was soon replaced by the guitarists Irving Ashby (formerly of the Nat King Cole Trio), Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis, who joined in 1953. The Peterson-Brown-Ellis trio was regarded by many as the best piano-bass-guitar trio of all time. It became renowned for its passionate and spontaneous soloing, as well as its ability to play at breakneck tempos and to tackle complex arrangements.

Peterson toured Europe with JATP in 1952, 1953 and 1954. He returned annually with his trio for many years. They often accompanied the singer Ella Fitzgerald. In 1953, Peterson made the first of many appearances in Japan. In the early 1950s, while playing at a club in Washington, DC, Peterson met his idol, Art Tatum. The two became good friends. Peterson performed at the Montreal, Stratford, Shaw and Vancouver International festivals, and appeared often in Canadian nightclubs. His trio recorded a celebrated LP at Stratford — Oscar Peterson at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival (1956). It also recorded the acclaimed On the Town (1958) at Toronto’s Town Tavern.

Throughout his career, Peterson made Canada his home base. In 1958, he moved from Montreal to Toronto, and later to nearby Mississauga. Also in 1958, Ellis left the trio. In 1959, Peterson changed its composition to piano, bass and drums by adding drummer Ed Thigpen, famous for his sensitivity and meticulous brushwork. The Peterson trio of this period was celebrated for its seemingly telepathic sense of interplay and its virtuosity.

Night Train (1962), recorded with his trio, proved to be one of Peterson’s most commercially successful albums. Canadiana Suite (1964) was one of his most acclaimed. Between 1963 and 1968, he recorded a series of solo albums for MPS called Exclusively for my Friends. Following the departure of Brown and Thigpen in 1965, Peterson added bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes. Hayes was replaced in 1967 by Bobby Durham. During the years 1967–71, Peterson recorded for the most part in Villingen, West Germany, for the Saba label (later MPS).

In 1970, Oscar Peterson began to perform solo almost exclusively. He returned to the small ensemble format in 1972 with guitarist Joe Pass and bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. The success of this trio rivaled that of the Peterson-Brown-Ellis group. The band expanded to a quartet in 1974 with the addition of drummer Martin Drew. In the 1970s, Peterson recorded with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie and Stéphane Grappelli on many of his own albums for the Pablo label.

The mid-1970s saw Peterson achieve a high degree of critical acclaim and industry recognition. He had four Grammy Award-winning albums: The Trio (1973), The Giants (1974), Oscar Peterson and the Trumpet Kings – Jousts (1974) and Montreux ’77 (1977). He also released live records of concerts in Tokyo, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Tallinn, The Hague and New York.

Despite being afflicted with arthritis since his teens, Peterson maintained a rigorous international touring schedule well into the 1980s. He played and recorded in a duo with pianist Herbie Hancock and made several appearances at the Festival international de jazz de Montreal; these included a concert with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at the Forum in 1984. He also performed at Ontario Place and Roy Thomson Hall as part of jazz festivals in Toronto. His album If You Could See Me Now (1983), recorded with the quartet of Pass, Ørsted Pedersen and Drew, won a 1987 Juno Award for Best Jazz Album. However, by decade’s end, his arthritis had become increasingly severe. As a result, he reduced his performance schedule to a matter of weeks each year in Europe, Japan and the US.

In 1990, he reunited with the Brown-Ellis trio, producing several acclaimed albums of their performances at the Blue Note club in New York. Live at the Blue Note (1990) and Saturday Night at the Blue Note (1990) won a total of three Grammy Awards. Last Call at the Blue Note (1990) received a Juno Award nomination.

In 1993, several months after having hip replacement surgery, Peterson had a stroke while performing at the Blue Note. His left side was especially affected. He withdrew from commitments and resumed performing gradually after a two-year recovery. A restricted ability in his left hand became noticeable; it greatly reduced the strong contrapuntal quality that he had always played with. Yet he continued to tour, compose and record. According to broadcaster Ross Porter, “What he was able to achieve, playing with half of what most other pianists had, he was still light years ahead of everyone else.”

Peterson appeared at Carnegie Hall in 1995 and at a tribute to him at New York’s Town Hall in 1996. His album Oscar Peterson Meets Roy Hargrove and Ralph Moore (1996) was nominated for a Juno Award in 1997. He played Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, and occasionally at jazz festivals, such as Toronto’s 2001 JVC festival and various European festivals. Also in 2001, he toured Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. By that time, he had completed more than 130 albums under his own name, mainly for the labels Verve (1950–64), MPS (1967–71), Pablo (1972–86) and Telarc (beginning in 1990).

In 2002, Peterson published his memoir, A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Peterson. A tribute concert held at Carnegie Hall on 8 June 2007, as part of the Fujitsu Jazz Festival, featured performances by Wynton Marsalis, Marian McPartland, Hank Jones and Clark Terry. Peterson was originally scheduled to appear but bowed out due to frail health. He died of kidney failure in his Mississauga home in December that year.

Compositions

As a composer, Peterson wrote and recorded a variety of his own jazz themes. His popular “Hymn to Freedom” (from Night Train, 1962) became an anthem of the US civil rights movement during the 1960s. Versions of “Hymn to Freedom” were recorded in the 1980s by Oliver Jones and Doug Riley.

Peterson’s most significant and best-known composition was Canadiana Suite (1964). It is an eight-part programmatic survey of Canada’s distinguishing features, including “Wheatland” (the Prairies), “Hogtown Blues” (Toronto) and “Land of the Misty Giants” (the Rocky Mountains). Described by Peterson as “a musical portrait of the Canada I love,” Canadiana Suite was nominated for a Grammy Award as best jazz composition of 1965. It has been arranged for big band by both Phil Nimmons and Ron Collier, and for orchestra by Rick Wilkins, who served on several occasions as Peterson’s orchestrator.

Peterson wrote City Lights (1977), a waltz about the City of Toronto, for the Ballets Jazz de Montreal. He also composed The African Suite (1979), A Royal Wedding Suite (1981, for the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana) and Easter Suite (1984). He composed and performed works for jazz trio and orchestra on commission from Bach 300 (premiered with the National Arts Centre Orchestra at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall in 1984) and for the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary. His Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite, inspired by the Trans Canada Trail, was commissioned by Music 2000 and premiered that year at Roy Thomson Hall.

Peterson’s compositions have been recorded by such jazz greats as Count Basie, Ray Brown, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge, Marian McPartland, Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Jackson. His other works for jazz group over the years included “Hallelujah Time,” “Blues for Big Scotia,” “The Smudge,” “Bossa Beguine,” “A Little Jazz Exercise,” “Tippin’,” “Mississauga Rattler,” “Samba Sensitive” and a variety of informally conceived blues works. Parts of Peterson's suites (e.g., "Nigerian Marketplace" from African Suite) have been played and recorded as independent pieces.

For film, Peterson wrote and recorded “Blues for Allan Felix,” heard in the Woody Allen comedy Play It Again Sam (1972). He composed scores for the feature film The Silent Partner (1977), which won a Canadian Film Award in 1978, and the documentaries Big North and Fields of Endless Day. The latter was a National Film Board/Ontario Educational Communications Authority-produced history of Black Canadians. His score for the biographical documentary In the Key of Oscar received a Gemini Award in 1993.

Style and Approach

Through his studies with Paul de Marky, Peterson followed in the pianistic tradition of Franz Liszt. Impressionist and late-Romantic influences were also detected in his playing. After a concert in Toronto in 1950, Hugh Thompson observed in the Daily Star, “His version of ‘Tenderly’ leans heavily on Debussy and Ravel in its harmonies, and his'Little White Lies' had definite echoes of Rachmaninoff.” In jazz, Peterson acknowledged the influence of Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Hank Jones and Nat King Cole (whom Peterson resembled especially on the rare occasions he sang). Peterson’s style can be heard as the product of a transitional period in jazz, the 1940s. Even in his later years he moved freely from stride to bebop.

Gene Lees, writing in Maclean's in 1975, quoted the Argentine composer-pianist Lalo Schifrin as saying, “Oscar is a true romantic in the 19th-century sense, with the addition of the 20th-century Afro-American jazz tradition. He is a top-class virtuoso.” Lees added, “This response is common. Peterson has astounding speed. Only Phineas Newborn and the late Art Tatum, one of his idols and mentors, have equaled him. And he has a power of direct swing that Tatum never equaled. His ideas are not always original; on a poor night, he falls back on his own highly identifiable phrases of musical vocabulary and some he got from others, such as a curious spinning chromatic figure of Dizzy Gillespie’s. But these alone can be electrifying — the brilliantly clear and perfectly balanced runs, like streams of sparks, the great chords whacked into perfect place in the swing with the left hand that plays tenths effortlessly and could, I suppose, if he wanted, encompass twelfths, the dizzying passages in octaves that utilize a left hand as proficient as the right.”

Criticism and Praise

Paradoxically, Peterson’s greatest strength, his technique, brought him his greatest criticism: that his performances, for all their facility, were an overwhelming mélange of style over substance and lacked emotional warmth. In 1973, Times of London music critic John S. Wilson wrote, “For the last 20 years, Oscar Peterson has been one of the most dazzling exponents of the flying fingers school of piano playing. His performances have tended to be beautifully executed displays of technique but woefully weak on emotional projection.” The New York Times noted in his obituary that, “many critics found Mr. Peterson more derivative than original, especially early in his career. Some even suggested that his fantastic technique lacked coherence and was almost too much for some listeners to compute.” JazzTimes critic Thomas Conrad described Peterson’s achievements as “more athletic than aesthetic.” He claimed that songs which should have been occasions for self-revelation became, in Peterson’s hands, “elegant, flawless and detached.”

Noted musicologist Max Harrison and New Yorker columnist Whitney Baillett found Peterson’s style to be glib and superficial. No less a figure than Miles Davis criticized Peterson’s ability for interplay, saying that, “nearly everything he plays, he plays with the same degree of force. He leaves no holes for the rhythm section.” The Toronto Star’s Peter Goddard once observed that, “wowing audiences with flash fingering bothered critics who thought speed was all he had… In the 1950s hailed as ‘the greatest living jazz pianist,’ by 1961 it was an opinion that ‘would not be considered in serious jazz circles,’ snapped British critic Burnett James.”

However, Peterson’s champions typically outnumbered his critics. Duke Ellington nicknamed him “the Maharaja of the keyboard” and said he was “beyond category.” In the early 1990s, esteemed American pianist Hank Jones said, “Oscar Peterson is head and shoulders above any pianist alive today. Oscar is the apex. He is the crowning ruler of all the pianists in the jazz world. No question about it.” Acclaimed pianist Marian McPartland described him as “the finest technician that I have seen,” and pianist and conductor André Previn called him “the best” among jazz pianists.

Following Peterson’s death, the Independent described him as “an explosion of talent” who “could overwhelm any style of jazz piano and… swing harder than any other player. In fact, the best way to define the elusive quality of ‘swing’ might be to use a Peterson performance as an illustration. He had a deep knowledge of jazz history and could play two-fisted stride, or complex and intricate bebop. His timing and imagination also made him one of the great ballad players. He had everything, with only an occasional penchant for rococo decoration to detract from his achievements.”

Influence on Other Pianists

Peterson’s influence on his fellow musicians is difficult to estimate. His extraordinary level of skill made his playing difficult to emulate directly, as did his lack of affiliation with a particular style or idiom. However, he was an early inspiration to many pianists. Herbie Hancock once wrote, “Oscar Peterson redefined swing for modern jazz pianists for the latter half of the 20th century... I consider him the major influence that formed my roots in jazz piano playing. He mastered the balance between technique, hard blues grooving, and tenderness.” Nanaimo, BC, native Diana Krall once called Peterson “the reason I became a jazz pianist. In my high school yearbook it says that my goal is to become a jazz pianist like Oscar Peterson.”

Career as Educator

Peterson operated the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto from 1960 to 1962 with Phil Nimmons, Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen. The school was closed after only three years due to the demands of Peterson’s performance schedule. But it drew jazz students from cities throughout North America. The faculty grew to include Erich Traugott (trumpet), Jiro “Butch” Watanabe (trombone) and Ed Bickert (guitar). Peterson’s own pupils included Skip Beckwith, Carol Britto, Brian Browne, Wray Downes and Bill King.

Peterson also wrote four volumes of his Jazz Exercises and Pieces for the Young Jazz Pianist, which were published in the mid-1960s. He was also present at the inception of the Banff Centre for the Arts Jazz Workshop in 1974. He returned to an academic setting in 1985 as adjunct professor of music at York University. He also served as chancellor there from 1991 to 1994 and became an honorary governor in 1995. He also assisted in establishing the Oscar Peterson Jazz Research Centre at Winters College, York University’s school of fine arts.

Radio and TV Broadcasts

After his early career on CBC Radio, Peterson was not heard with any regularity on the network, save for his recordings. That changed in the 1970s, when Jazz Radio-Canada broadcast concert performances, and That Midnight Jazz and The Entertainers offered profiles. Peterson himself was host for the short series Oscar Peterson's Jazz Soloists (1984) and Jazz at the Philharmonic (1990).

He was seen in several specials on CBC TV, including: Oscar Peterson Inside (1967); A Very Special Oscar Peterson (1976); Oscar Peterson’s Canadiana Suite (1979), a performance with a 37-piece orchestra of his Canadiana Suite with corresponding scenic footage; and the 13-episode series, Oscar Peterson and Friends (1980). He was also host in the mid-1970s of CTV’s Oscar Peterson Presents (1974), and BBC TV’s Piano Party (1976) and Oscar Peterson Invites… (1977). CBC Radio presented a seven-part documentary on him in 1994. The CBC TV biography series Life and Times featured him in the 2003 episode “Oscar Peterson: Keeping the Groove Alive.”

Canadian Sidemen

Although most of Oscar Peterson’s groups were US-based, he periodically employed Canadians as his sidemen. Among them were bassists Michel Donato, Steve Wallace and David Young; drummers Terry Clarke, Jerry Fuller, Stan Perry and Ron Rully; and guitarist Lorne Lofsky.

Personal Life

Peterson was married four times, first to Lillian Fraser (1944–58), with whom he had two sons and three daughters. After his marriage to Sandra King (1966–76), he had one daughter with his third wife, Charlotte Huber (1977–87). His marriage to Kelly Peterson (née Green), with whom he had one daughter, lasted from 1990 until his death in 2007.

Honours

Peterson received a multitude of honours and awards, from international recognition of the highest order to schools and scholarships named in his honour. During the 1976 Olympic Summer Games in Montreal, he was awarded a key to the city. In 1978, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. In 1990, the Festival international de jazz de Montréal established the annual Oscar Peterson Award to recognize “a performer’s musicianship and exceptional contribution to the development of Canadian jazz.” In 1993, he was awarded the Glenn Gould Prize. That award’s namesake is considered Peterson’s only rival among Canadian pianists.

Concordia University named a concert hall in Peterson’s honour in 1998; it also created the Dr. Oscar Peterson Jazz Scholarship with Verve Music Group Canada in 2000. In 1999, Peterson became the first Canadian and the first jazz musician to receive the Praemium Imperiale Award, the arts equivalent of the Nobel Prize, from the Japan Art Association.

In 1991, Peterson began to deposit his papers at the National Library of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada). It curated a major exhibition about him titled Oscar Peterson: A Jazz Sensation. It opened on Canada Day 2000 and ran until September 2001.

In 2000, Peterson received the UNESCO International Music Prize and a citation from US President Bill Clinton recognizing his achievements. Also that year, his album, The Trio, was designated a Masterwork by the Government of Canada’s AV Preservation Trust. In 2001, the cities of San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco, California, declared the week of 28 August to 2 September “Oscar Peterson Week.” The US House of Representatives presented him with a commendation in recognition of his contributions to society.

In 2002, Peterson became the first person inducted into the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame. He also received a lifetime achievement award that year from the Urban Music Association of Canada. In 2003, Mississauga named a street Oscar Peterson Boulevard, and the government of Austria issued a stamp in his honour. In 2005, a public school in Mississauga was named after him, and Canada Post made him the first living person other than a reigning monarch to appear on a stamp. In 2008, “Hymn to Freedom” was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In 2010, York University’s Department of Music created the $40,000 Oscar Peterson Entrance Scholarship. In 2013, Peterson was posthumously inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame. A life-sized sculpture of Peterson, unveiled on 30 Jun 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, sits permanently outside the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

On what would have been Peterson’s 97th birthday — 15 August 2022 — the Royal Canadian Mint issued three million $1 circulation coins commemorating him. The coin features an illustration of Peterson playing the piano with the final notes of “Hymn to Freedom” rising above. Peterson is the first Black Canadian and the first musician to be featured on a Canadian circulation coin.

See also: Oscar Peterson (Obituary)

A version of this entry originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.

Awards

Juno Awards

• Inductee, Canadian Music Hall of Fame (1978)
• Best Jazz Album, If You Could See Me Now (1987)

Grammy Awards

• Best Jazz Performance by a Group, The Trio (1974)
• Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist, The Giants (1977)
• Best Jazz Instrumental Performance Soloist, Montreux ’77 – Oscar Peterson Jam (1978)
• Best Jazz Instrumental Performance Soloist, Jousts (1979)
• Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group, The Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio Live at the Blue Note (1990)
• Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist, The Legendary Oscar Peterson Trio Live at the Blue Note (1990)
• Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group, Saturday Night at the Blue Note (1991)
• Lifetime Achievement Award (1997)

Honorary Degrees

• Doctor of Laws, Carleton University (1973)
• Doctor of Laws, Queen's University (1976)
• Doctor of Laws, Concordia University (1979)
• Doctor of Music, Mount Allison University (1980)
• Doctor of Laws, McMaster University (1981)
• Doctor of Laws, University of Victoria (1981)
• Doctor of Letters, York University (1982)
• Doctor of Fine Arts, Northwestern University, Illinois (1983)
• Honorary Degree, Berklee College of Music (1984)
• L Doctor of Laws, University of Toronto (1985)
• Doctor of Music, Université Laval (1985)
• Honorary Doctorate, Western Ontario Conservatory of Music (1994)
• Doctor of Laws, University of British Columbia (1994)
• Doctor of Fine Arts, Niagara University, New York (1996)
• Doctor of Laws, University of Western Ontario (1999)

Others

• Best Jazz Album of the Year (The Trio Live from Chicago), Edison Awards, Europe (1962)
• Officer, Order of Canada (1972)
• Award of Merit, City of Toronto (1973)
• Companion, Order of Canada (1984)
• Diplôme d'honneur, Canadian Conference of the Arts (1975)
• Queen’s Medal (1977)
• Honorary Member, Canadian Music Council (1978)
• Music Score – Feature (The Silent Partner), Canadian Film Awards (1978)
• Honorary Lifetime Member, Musician’s Guild, Montreal (1982)
• Award of Merit, City of Toronto (1983)
• Roy Thomson Hall Award (1987)
• Officer, Order of Arts and Letters, Government of France (1989)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Toronto Arts Awards (1991)
• Knight, Ordre national du Québec (1991)
• Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement (1992)
• Member, Order of Ontario (1992)
• Best Original Music Score for a Program or Mini-Series (In the Key of Oscar), Gemini Awards (1993)
• Glenn Gould Prize, Glenn Gould Foundation (1993)
• Award of the International Society for Performing Artists (1995)
• Loyola Medal, Concordia University (1997)
• International Jazz Hall of Fame Award (1997)
• Praemium Imperiale World Art Award, Japan Art Association (1999)
• Society for American Music Award, Society for American Music (2000)
• International Music Prize, UNESCO (2000)
• Musician of the Year Award, Toronto Musicians’ Association (2001)
• Person of the Year Award, Skynet Internet (2001)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Atlanta International Jazz Society (2001)
• Inductee, Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame (2002)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Boesendorfer Piano Company of Austria (2002)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, Urban Music Association of Canada (2002)
• President's Award, International Association for Jazz Education (2003)
• Civic Award of Merit, City of Mississauga (2003)
• Inductee, Mississauga Arts Hall of Fame (2003)
• Austrian Cross of Honour for Artistic & Cultural Achievement, Government of Austria (2003)
• Distinguished Canadian Leadership Award, University of Ottawa (2004)
• Hall of Fame Award, Canadian Association of Broadcasters (2004)
• Lifetime Achievement Award, BBC Radio (2005)
• Frank Davies Legacy Award, Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (2008)
• Inductee (“Hymn to Freedom”), Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame (2008)
• Inductee, Canada’s Walk of Fame (2013)

Discography

Peterson, Piano; other musicians as indicated

• I Got Rhythm, composite personnel [1945–9] (1976). 2-RCA FXMI-7233 (Armand Samson and Ben Johnson, guitar; Bert Brown, Albert King and Austin Roberts, double-bass; Frank Gariépy, Roland Verdun, Russ Dufort, Mark “Wilkie” Wilkinson and Clarence Jones, drums)
• Tenderly (1950). Verve MGV-2046 (Major Holley or Ray Brown, double-bass).
• Keyboard (1950). Verve MGV-2047 (Major Holley or Ray Brown, double-bass).
• Nostalgic Memories (1950, 1954). Verve MGV-2045 (Herb Ellis, guitar; Major Holley or Ray Brown, double-bass; Louie Bellson, drums).

Four LP transcription discs for RCI: solos and duets (1951). RCI 37, 38, 39, 40 (Austin Roberts, double bass). [12 selections (of 20) were reissued on LP in 1990 on RCI 639].

Peterson, Piano; Ray Brown, Bass

• Evening with Oscar Peterson (1950, 1951). Verve MGV-2048.
• Pastel Moods (1952, 1953, 1954). Verve MGV-2004 (Irving Ashby or Herb Ellis, guitar).
• Recital (1952, 1953, 1954). Verve MGV-2044 (Barney Kessel or Herb Ellis, guitar; Alvine Stoller or Louie Bellson, drums).
• Romance (1952). Verve MGV-2012 (Oscar Peterson, voice; Barney Kessel, guitar; Alvin Stoller, drums).
• Jazz at the Philharmonic, vol. 8 (1952). Verve MG (Barney Kessel, guitar; Alvin Stoller, drums).
• Oscar Peterson Sings (1953). Clef MGC-145 (Oscar Peterson, voice; Barney Kessel, guitar).
• Jazz at the Philharmonic, vol. 9 (1953). Verve MG (Herb Ellis, guitar).
• Jazz at the Philharmonic, vol. 10 (1954). Verve MG (Herb Ellis, guitar).
• Jazz at the Philharmonic, vol. 11 (1955). Verve MG (Herb Ellis, guitar).
• In a Romantic Mood, orchestra, conducted by Russ Garcia (1955, 1956). Verve MGV-2002.
• Oscar Peterson Plays Count Basie (1956). Verve MGV-8092 (Herb Ellis, guitar; Buddy Rich, drums).
• Oscar Peterson at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival (1956). Verve MGV-8024 (Herb Ellis, guitar).
• Soft Sands, orchestra (1957). Verve MGV-2079 (Oscar Peterson, voice; Herb Ellis, guitar; Stan Levey, drums).
• Newport Jazz Festival 1957 (1957). Verve MGV-8239 (Roy Eldridge, trumpet; Sonny Stitt, alto/tenor saxophone; Herb Ellis, guitar; Jo Jones, drums).
• At the Concertgebouw (1958). Verve MGV-8268 (Herb Ellis, guitar).
• On the Town (1958). Verve MGV-8287 (Herb Ellis, guitar).
• My Fair Lady (1958). Verve MGV-62119 (Gene Gammage, drums).

Peterson, Piano; Ray Brown, Bass; Ed Thigpen, Drums

• Jazz Portrait of Sinatra (1959). Verve MGV-68334.
• Jazz Soul (1959). Verve MGV-68351.
• Fiorello! (1959). Verve MGV-68366.
• Porgy and Bess (1959). Verve MGV-68340.
• Swinging Brass, orchestra, conducted by Russ Garcia (1959). Verve MGV-68364.
• Trio (1961). Verve MGV-68420.
• Sound of the Trio (1961). Verve MGV-68480.
• Very Tall (1961). Verve MGV-68429 (Milt Jackson, vibraphone).
• West Side Story (1962). Verve MGV-68454.
• Put on a Happy Face (1962). Verve MGV-68660.
• Something Warm (1962). Verve MGV-68681.
• Bursting Out, orchestra (1962). Verve MGV-68476.
• Affinity (1962). Verve MGV-68516.
• Night Train (1962). Verve MGV-68538.
• Oscar Peterson with Nelson Riddle, orchestra, conducted by Nelson Riddle (1963). Verve MGV-68562.
• Action (1963–4). MPS/BASF 21-20668.
• We Get Requests (1964). Verve MGV-68606.
• Oscar Peterson Plays (1964). Verve MGV-68591.
• Canadiana Suite (1964). Limelight LM-82010.
• Oscar Peterson Plus One (1964). Mer MG-20975 (Clark Terry, trumpet/flugelhorn/voice).
• Eloquence (1965). Limelight LM-86023/Trip-5560.

Peterson also recorded two series of LPs devoted to individual songwriters.

For Clef he recorded music by Cole Porter (MGC-603), Irving Berlin (MGC-604), George Gershwin (MGC-605) and Duke Ellington (MGC-606) with Kessel and Brown in 1952; by Jerome Kern (MGC-623), Richard Rodgers (MGC-624) and Vincent Youmans (MGC-625) with Ellis and Brown in 1953; and by Harry Warren (MGC-648), Harold Arlen (MGC-649) and Jimmy McHugh (MGC-650) with Ellis and Brown in 1954.

For Verve he recorded music by Cole Porter (MGV-62052), Irving Berlin (MGV-62053), Ira Gershwin (MGV-62054), Duke Ellington (MGV-62055), Kern (MGV-62056), Richard Rodgers (MGV-62057), Harry Warren and Vincent Youmans (MGV-62059), Harold Arlen (MGV-62060) and Jimmy McHugh (MGV-62061), all with Brown and Thigpen in 1959.

Peterson, Piano; Sam Jones, Bass; Bobby Durham, Drums

• Soul Español (1966). Limelight EXPR-1029 (Louis Hayes, drums; Marshall Thompson, Henley Gibson and Harold Jones, percussion).
• The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World, with Duke Ellington Orchestra (1967). Pablo 2625-704 (Coleman Hawkins, tenor saxophone).
• Girl Talk (1967). MPS/BASF 21-20669 (or Ray Brown, double-bass; Louis Hayes, drums).
• My Favourite Instrument, solo piano (1967). MPS/BASF 21-20671.
• The Way I Really Play (1968). MPS/BASF 21-20670.
• Mellow Mood (1968). MPS/BASF 21-20962.
• Travelin' on (1968). MPS/BASF 21-20963.
• Motions and Emotions, orchestra, conducted by Claus Ogerman (1969). MPS/BASF 21-20713.
• Hello Herbie. Ellis guitar (1969). MPS/BASF 21-20723.
• Tristeza on Piano (1970). MPS/BASF 21-20734.

Peterson, Piano; other musicians as indicated

Please Note: NHØP refers to Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen.

• Another Day (1970). MPS/BASF 21-20869 (George Mraz, double-bass; Ray Price, drums).
• Walking the Line (1970). MPS/BASF 21-20868 (George Mraz; Ray Price, drums).
• Tracks, solo piano (1970). MPS/BASF 21-20879.
• In Tune, with Singers Unlimited (1971). MPS/BASF 21-20905 (George Mraz, double-bass; Louis Hayes, drums).
• Reunion Blues (1971). MPS/BASF 21-20908 (Milt Jackson, vibraphone; Ray Brown, double-bass; Louis Hayes, drums).
• Great Connection (1971). MPS/BASF 21-21281 (NHØP, double-bass; Louis Hayes, drums).
• [LP title not known] (1972). Nippon Columbia NCP-8501 (Michel Donato, double-bass; Louis Hayes, drums).
• History of an Artist (1972, 1973, 1974). 2-Pablo 2625-702 (Irving Ashby, Barney Kessel or Herb Ellis, guitar; Ray Brown, Sam Jones or George Mraz, double-bass; Bobby Durham or Louis Hayes, drums).
• Oscar Peterson Featuring Stéphane Grappelli (1973). America AM-6129 and 6131/2-Prestige 24041 (Stéphane Grappelli, violin; NHØP, double-bass; Kenny Clarke, drums).
• The Trio (1973). Pablo 2310-701 (Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass).
• Canadiana Suite, with Nimmons'N' Nine Plus Six (1973). CBC LM-303 (NHØP, double-bass).
• Oscar Peterson in Russia (1974). 2-Pablo 2625-711 (NHØP, double-bass; Jake Hanna, drums).
• Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie (1974). Pablo 2310-740 (Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet).
• “Satch” & “Josh” (1974). Pablo 2310-722 (Count Basie, piano/organ; Freddie Green, guitar; Ray Brown, double-bass; Louie Bellson, drums).
• Oscar Peterson and Roy Eldridge (1974). Pablo 2310-739 (Roy Eldridge, trumpet).
• Oscar Peterson and Harry Edison (1974). Pablo 2310-741 (Harry Edison, trumpet).
• The Giants (1974). Pablo 2310-796 (Joe Pass, guitar; Ray Brown, double-bass).
• À la Salle Pleyel. (1975). 2-Pablo 2625-705 (Joe Pass, guitar).
• Oscar Peterson and Clark Terry (1975). Pablo 2310-742 (Clark Terry, trumpet).
• Ella and Oscar (1976). Pablo 2310-759 (Ella Fitzgerald, voice; Ray Brown, double-bass).
• Oscar Peterson and Jon Faddis (1975). Pablo 2310-743 (Jon Faddis, trumpet).
• Joust (1974–5). Pablo 2310-817 (Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet; Harry Edison, trumpet; Roy Eldridge, trumpet; Jon Faddis, trumpet; Clark Terry, trumpet [individually]).
• The Oscar Peterson Big 6 at Montreux (1975). Pablo 2310-747 (Toots Thielemans, harmonica; Milt Jackson, vibraphone; Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass; Louie Bellson, drums).
• Porgy and Bess (1976). Pablo 2310-779 (Oscar Peterson, clavichord only; Joe Pass, guitar).
• Oscar Peterson Jam Montreux'77 (1977). Pablo 2308-208 (Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet; Clark Terry, trumpet; NHØP, double-bass; Eddie Davis, tenor saxophone; Bobby Durham, drums).
• Oscar Peterson and the Bassists (1977). Pablo 2308-213 (Ray Brown, double-bass; NHØP, double-bass).
• Satch and Josh Again (1977). Pablo 2310-802 (Count Basie, piano/organ; John Heard, double-bass; Louie Bellson, drums).
• Night Rider (1978). Pablo 2310-843 (Count Basie, piano/organ; John Heard, double-bass; Louie Bellson, drums).
• Yessir That's My Baby [1978] (1986). Pablo 2310-923 (Count Basie, piano/organ; John Heard, double-bass; Louie Bellson, drums).
• The Paris Concert (1978). Pablo 2620-112 (Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass).
• The London Concert (1978). Pablo 2620-111 (John Heard, double-bass; Louie Bellson, drums).
• The Silent Partner (1979). Pablo 2312-103 (Clark Terry, trumpet; Benny Carter, alto saxophone; Zoot Sims, tenor saxophone; Milt Jackson, vibraphone; John Heard, double-bass; Grady Tate, drums).
• Night Child. Pass guitar, (1979). Pablo 2312-108 (Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass, Louie Bellson, drums).
• Skol in Scandanavia. (1979). Pablo 2308-232 (Stéphane Grappelli, violin; Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass; Mickey Roker, drums).
• The Personal Touch (1980). Pablo 2312-113 (Oscar Peterson, piano/voice; Clark Terry, trumpet; Ed Bickert or Peter Leitch, guitar; Dave Young, double-bass; Jerry Fuller, drums).
• The Trumpet Summit Meets the Oscar Peterson Big 4 (1980). Pablo Today 2312-114 (Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry, trumpet; Joe Pass, guitar; Ray Brown, double-bass; Bobby Durham, drums).
• The Alternate Blues (1980). Pablo Today 2312-136 (Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry trumpet; Joe Pass, guitar; Ray Brown, double-bass; Bobby Durham, drums).
• Live at the Northsea Jazz Festival, The Hague, Holland, 1980. (1980). 2-Pablo Live 2620-115 Toots Thielemans, harmonica; Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass).
• A Royal Wedding Suite, with orchestra (1981). Pablo Today 2312-129.
• Nigerian Marketplace (1981). Pablo Live 2308-231 (NHØP, double-bass; Terry Clarke, drums).
• Freedom Song (1982) Pablo 2640.101 (Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass; Martin Drew, drums).
• Face to Face (1982). Pablo 2310-876 (Freddie Hubbard, trumpet; Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass; Martin Drew, drums).
• Two of the Few (1983). Pablo 2310-881 (Milt Jackson, vibraphone).
• If You Could See Me Now (1983). Pablo 2310-918 (Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass; Martin Drew, drums).
• A Tribute to My Friends (1983). Pablo 2310-902 (Joe Pass, guitar; NHØP, double-bass; Martin Drew, drums).
• Benny Carter Meets Oscar Peterson (1986). Pablo 2310-926 (Benny Carter, alto saxophone; Joe Pass, guitar; Dave Young, double-bass; Martin Drew, drums).
• Oscar Peterson + Harry Edison + Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson (1986). Pablo 2310-927 (Harry Edison, trumpet; Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, alto saxophone; Joe Pass, guitar; Dave Young, double-bass; Martin Drew, drums).
• Oscar Peterson Live (1986). Pablo 2310-940 (Joe Pass, guitar; Dave Young, double-bass; Martin Drew, drums).
• Live at the Blue Note (1990). 2-Telarc CD-83304 (Herb Ellis, guitar; Ray Brown, double-bass; Bobby Durham, drums).
• Saturday Night at the Blue Note (1990). Telarc CD-83306 (Herb Ellis, guitar; Ray Brown, double-bass; Bobby Durham, drums).
• Side by Side (1994). Telarc 83341 (Itzhak Perlman, violin; Herb Ellis, guitar; Ray Brown, bass; Grady Tate, drums).
• A Tribute to Oscar Peterson: Live at the Town Hall, various artists (1997). Telarc Jazz 83401.
• A Summer Night in Munich (1999). Telarc Jazz 83450 (Ulf Wakenius, guitar; NHØP, bass; Martin Drew, drums).
• Trail of Dreams: a Canadian Suite, conducted by Michel Legrand (2000). Telarc Jazz 83500 (Ulf Wakenius, guitar; NHØP, bass; Martin Drew, drums; Michel Legrand, strings).

Peterson also appeared on LPs as a member of JATP or Pablo concert parties, or jam sessions and recorded as an accompanist or guest soloist with Lester Young (Verve 8144), Buddy DeFranco (Verve 8210), Stan Getz (Verve 8251), the Modern Jazz Quartet (Verve 8269), Louis Armstrong (Verve 8322), Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald (2-Verve 8811), Coleman Hawkins (Verve 8346) and Gerry Mulligan (Verve 8559), among many others.

Many of the albums in this discography have been reissued on CD; other Peterson CDs comprise material repackaged from various points in his career — e.g., Oscar Peterson Plays Jazz Standards (1953–62, Verve 833-283, released in 1987) and The Will to Swing (1949–71, 2-Verve 847-203, released in 1991).