The Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson (1925–2007) is well known as a virtuosic performer, winning 8 Grammys during his lifetime and releasing more than 200 albums. He is particularly well-known for the trios that largely defined his career: the first with Ray Brown (bass) and Herb Ellis (guitar), then Ray Brown (bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums), and finally Joe Pass (guitar) and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (bass).
Perhaps less known is the influence of classical composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Sergei Rachmaninoff on his playing, composers that he was introduced to partially through the work of his sister, Daisy Sweeney, an accomplished pianists and pedagogue herself, with whom Peterson studied with as a young pianist.
Peterson was heavily involved in education throughout his whole career, and wrote a number of excellent teaching pieces for young students. His collections, including Jazz Études and Pieces and Jazz Exercises and Minuets, introduce jazz idioms and Peterson's style through fully-composed works and are well worth exploring.
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