Oscar Peterson in Interview

image courtesy of Pablo Records

Much of his soloing is preoccupied with building pyramid-like structures, deftly reaching the top and then releasing the energy by gliding through a series of brilliantly raging notes which always sound light and afloat. Oscar Peterson is a giant of piano (this is known as "stating the obvious"), both metaphorically and figuratively. His physical dominance over the instrument and the brain which is capable of producing huge melodic units has given us one of the most extraordinary musicians ever.

Found in my collection of jazz interview tapes, this CBC interview (no date mentioned on the cassette) is very enjoyable to listen to and highly illuminating, especially towards the end, when the usual mask of the gentle giant falls off and some of his anger over what seems to be the Canadian issues of the time are revealed.
As for the audio file, the sound volume is too high, so I advise turning the volume of your device lower than normal before playing the tape. There are some weird background noises heard during the playback which have something to do with my primitive digitizing techniques, so apologies in advance for that mid-section annoyance.

Furthermore, I've made a table of content, in case you want to jump to a particular subject. However, listening to the whole thing which lasts for nearly half an hour is highly recommended.


00:00  No more nightclubs
00:40  Where is the best place to listen to jazz?
01:40  Being "bad"?
02:40  Dedication to the evening performance
05:00  Benefits of being drifted too far from the shore
05:50  OP's hands
07:15  This is not just some fast playing thing
08:20  Dudley Moore
09:30  Dumb critics
11:10  The most awesome computer is the jazz player's mind
13:15  Classical player is an interpreter
14:10  Left hand
14:50  Different sounds
15:42  I don't miss the old days
16:20  Getting nervous
17:00  Ella
18:00  Balls in the piano
19:20  Control
21:10  In Canada, I've been taken for a football player 
21:40  People don't take jazz seriously
23:30  Racism in Canada

courtesy of CBC Network