Oscar Peterson, Celebrated Jazz Pianist, Dies at 82

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The New York Sun

Oscar Peterson, one of the great jazz musicians and among the most celebrated virtuoso pianists of all time, died on Sunday of kidney failure in Toronto. He was 82. In an interview with The New York Sun last year, the contemporary jazz pianist Bill Charlap described Oscar Peterson as “one of the most profoundly important pianists in the history of the music. He straddles the entire history of jazz piano. Everything everyone says is true!” Peterson’s praises were also sung by virtually every major pianist of the second half of the 20th century, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and André Previn.

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