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Oscar Peterson: Jazz Virtuoso, Tech Geek
By Mark Evans | January 5, 2008
Just before Christmas, Canada lost one of its greats - jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, who recorded with everyone from Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong to Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole.
Peterson, however, was, in his own way, a geek whose enthusiasm for technology was clearly evident in a state-of-the-art recording studio in his basement that featured electronic keyboards, synthesizers, sequencers and computers It was through this connection that I got the opportunity to interview him a few years ago.
It all started with Nokia Canada, which happily discovered Peterson was a fan of the Nokia Communicator but couldn’t find one in Canada. Rather than wait, Peterson called Nokia Canada, which was more than happy to add him to the company’s beta testing group.
Presented with a golden marketing opportunity, they approached Peterson about whether he’d be willing to spread the word. After Peterson agreed, I got a call from Nokia’s Doug Dawson, who asked if I would be interested in meeting with Peterson.
At best, this was probably a tenuous technology story because lots of famous people use technology. But this was the one and only Oscar Peterson, so there was no way I was going to pass on the chance to meet him.
After the arrangements were made, I drove to Peterson’s home in suburban Toronto where we talked for about 30 minutes. He was gracious and fascinating, and while it’s wasn’t a sizzling story, it was probably one of the highlights of my journalistic career - after all, you don’t get the chance to meet truly great people that often.
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Topics: Music |