WEBVTT

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(upbeat jazz piano music)

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(man 1): Could I play
as quickly as you?

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(man 2): I believe so, why not?

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(man 1): \'Cause you\'re
Oscar Peterson, for God\'s sake!

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- I love what I do.
I love music, I love jazz.

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And it would have to be
something awfully immense...

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to... offset that in any way.

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(lively music)

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My dad, one day,
at the dinner table,

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discovered that I had
some kind of pitch.

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And he wanted us to be musical.

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He decided that...
that from the beginning,

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from the get go, as they say,

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and he, uh... insisted
that we stick with it.

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My dad thought I was getting
a little overseeing with myself,

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and he heard this record
and he played it.

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It was Art Tatum\'s Tiger Rag.
So I said, \"That\'s nice,

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who are the two guys playing
the piano?\" You know?

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He said,
\"Not two guys, one man.\"

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(piano music)
\"Nah! Come on!

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Somebody\'s playing
the left hand,

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somebody\'s playing
the right hand.\"

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\"No, no, no, no...

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It\'s one man.\"

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(lively piano music)

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(tuning radio)
(man):Tonight, we\'d like you

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to meet a coloured boy
whose amazing fingers

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have been cutting a rhythmic,
blazing path to success

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over the airwavesn for the
past three years now.

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Three years back, Oscar,
then 15,

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won a nationwide
new talent contest,

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and today,
still going to school,

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he manages to make
his presence felt

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on as many occasionsn as
his homework would allow,

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fulfilling engagements
over the radio networks.

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Tell me, boy,
how many hands you got?

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-Just two, Mr. David, just two.

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But I like to make them
work hard.

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- And we\'re mighty happy
he could make it.

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You will be too when you listen
to... Oscar Peterson!

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(crowd cheering)
(upbeat piano music)

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(Oscar): I can... do jumps,
anyone do.

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Play fast, that\'s a big deal.

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The thing is, what do you play?
How harmonically are you driven?

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(jazz orchestra)

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I think ahead when I play.
- Do you?

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You can\'t, Oscar, that\'s...
- I do.

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You can\'t be thinking...
- I think ahead...

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(host humming)

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I play behind what I\'m thinking.

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I\'m not... sitting here
playing it

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and waiting till the last note
and then say,

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\"Oh, I think
I\'ll put this with it.\"

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That\'s too late.

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The minute I start a phrase,
I\'ve clicked on -

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if you wanna talk computer -

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the macro that\'s gonna play
that phrase,

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and I\'m thinking of what\'s
gonna connect to that phrase.

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So, you know,
I\'m not sitting here saying,

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\"This is gonna be a G
and this is gonna be an A,\"

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you haven\'t got time for that.

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Primarily, a classical player
is an interpreter.

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A jazz player
is an instant composer.

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My early growing years
were spent in Montreal,

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and I stayed there almost
till I was in my early twenties.

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Montreal, at that time,
I think, was the...

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as they used to call it,
the Paris of America.

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Used to have a lot of Americans
coming up to spend the weekends,

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because there was so much
going on in Montreal,

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they had all kinds
of cabaret shows,

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they had burlesque...

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You know, they had concerts.
You name it, we had it.

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(jazz music)

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- Norman Granz?
- When he heard our

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sustaining broadcast
at the time, it was on...

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and the cabby had it on,

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you know, and Norman,

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\"What is... who is that?
What is this?\"

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\"It\'s Oscar Peterson.\"

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That\'s when Norman came
into the picture at the Alberta

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and insisted that I come down
to Carnegie Hall.

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And all the people I admired

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on records were there,
on the stage.

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And I sat in the audience
the first part of the concert,

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and I thought to myself,

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\"Now what am I gonna do
after all of this?\"

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\'Cause I was mesmerized
hearing people that I idolized!

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(applause)
And Norman came down

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in the audience
after the first set

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and said,
\"Okay, come on with me.\"

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So I went out
and did the best I could.

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(jazz music)

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(applause)

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(cheering)

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I was amazed at the reception.

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But it was during that marathon
in the States that sort of...

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pfft! ...mushroomed...

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And that\'s another thing
that\'s hard to handle, you know.

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You come out of a city
where you\'re a local pianist

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that people like, and they
appreciate you being there

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and you play well and thank you

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and you have a 15-minute
radio sustainer,

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and you look up,
all of a sudden,

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you\'re on stage
at Carnegie Hall,

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and people are standing up
doing this...

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(clapping hands)
and screaming.

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You know, and out of the stage
door, it\'s a different life.

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(soft piano music)

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It made me realize - too late -

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that it\'s not the best thing
in the world

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to have a fair-sized family
and be doing what I was doing.

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Didn\'t make any sense,
because you can\'t be there

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for the offspring
when they need you.

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The road is tough,
as everyone knows,

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and I wrote a poem once,
I wish I could find it,

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called Lonesome.

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You know, it is not at all
what people envision.

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Traveling the road
is one of the loneliest things

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in the world
that somebody can do.

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And you know,
when you have a family,

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that\'s not easy,
especially when they\'re young.

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It left a tremendous load
on my wife at that time,

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and it eventually ended
in divorce and separation.

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You know, who do you tell

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if you go out
and have one hell of a concert?

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And especially if you have
some of the names on it

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that I was traveling with...

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And your section
comes out of like...

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It mushrooms, right?

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The concert\'s over
when you\'re ready

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to play another one right then,
but no, no, it\'s finished,

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you got a flight the next
morning at 7:30,

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be out in LA
or wherever you\'re going.

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So you go back to the hotel...

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Who do you tell?

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Who do you come home and say,

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\"Phew! Boy, did I find
the switch tonight!\"

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You\'re there with
the four walls, it\'s quiet.

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Yeah, you have the phone,
but it\'s not the same thing

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\'cause you\'re not gonna phone
home every night at 2:30 or 3:00

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in the morning
when there\'re kids in the house.

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I still say that if I had my...
life to live over,

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I wouldn\'t even consider
getting married

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before I was at least 40.

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(applause and cheering)

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People do not realize
the effect...

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that a good or bad marriage
can have on a performer.

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It\'s not easy
to project happiness

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if you\'re not happy inside.

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It\'s really difficult.
I know...

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You have to almost be cold.

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You have to say,
\"Well, so it\'s not working,

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so okay,
that\'s... that department,\"

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and you have to try
and put it aside.

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No, you can\'t
put it out of your mind,

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but you try to put it
to one side.

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Because it can block
your improvisation or... ideas.

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If I allow these things
to cloud my vision,

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then I would not
be able to play.

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(classical piano music)

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Uh... my music?

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I would say emotional.

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Because I... I play exactly
the way I feel.

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(piano music)

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Respect for the instrument,
number one.

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If you play it well,
it will play well for you.

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What a communicator...
the piano is!

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I never thought of it that way
before, you know.

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Because I can sit down
to a piano

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and I feel that I can
impart something

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I wanna say musically
a lot easier certainly

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than I had been able to do
in trying to put words

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into that volume.

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(soft piano music)

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(cheering, applause)

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When I was able to walk
on the stage in...

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I believe it was Copenhagen,

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after my stroke,
and play with my group again,

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that was
an important moment to me.

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I believe that...
part of the thing

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is never overreaching
what you can do.

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(man): How is your relationship
with your kids now?

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- They\'re not kids,
they\'re men and women now,

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but... I don\'t think
I\'ve changed that much,

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but they\'ve grown to understand

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what my profession
demanded of me.

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(mellow jazz piano)

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Well, I think your music
is what you are.

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That\'s all.
I wanna leave a...

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Um...

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I wanna leave an ideal...

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for young pianists,
jazz pianists, to look at.

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I want them to evaluate that.

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(soft piano music)

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Subtitling: CNST, Montreal