Peterson tribute a star- studded love letter
A series of new compositions by famed Canadian jazz great Oscar Peterson will finally see release later this year.
Oscar, With Love will feature a star- studded cast of jazz pianists interpreting songs mostly composed by Peterson, for Peterson or by his close friends, according to the Montreal legend’s widow, Kelly Peterson, an executive producer on the project.
Chick Corea, Oliver Jones, Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, Benny Green and Makoto Ozone are among the players on the album, to be released on Kelly Peterson’s newly formed independent label Two Lions Records on Dec. 11.
Corea, a 22- time Grammy winner, penned a new song for the project called One For Oscar.
Although the final tracklist hasn’t been set, Kelly Peterson says 17 artists are recording two songs each for what will eventually be a three- CD or five- LP set.
Among the recordings are at least a dozen previously unreleased Oscar Peterson compositions.
Several of the artists featured on the record will perform at Toronto’s Koerner Hall on release day.
Every song on the album was recorded at Peterson’s home studio on his personal Bosendorfer Imperial piano, which will be played publicly for the first time at the Koerner Hall concert.
“Each person when they arrived talked about being very humbled and also feeling as though they were walking on hallowed ground,” Kelly Peterson said in a telephone interview.
“One of my goals with this was to ask each person to play Oscar’s music in their own voice. So really, it’s his music, but it’s their voice, which makes it particularly thrilling to hear all these different interpretations.”