Legendary
jazz producer Norman Granz knew what he was doing. It would be quite a
challenge for just about any musician to make their American debut during a Jazz at the Philharmonic Concert at
Carnegie Hall, but Oscar Peterson killed it. Not merely the greatest Canadian
jazz musician thus far, Peterson probably led the best-selling, most acclaimed
mainstream swing piano trio—ever. He took the place Nat King Cole vacated to
become a full-time crooner, making the piano trio bigger than ever. Marie-Josée
Saint-Pierre mixes animation and archival footage to pay tribute to the master
in the National Film Board-supported short film, Oscar
(clip here),
which screens during the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival.
O.P.,
as he was sometimes called, played his final bars in 2007, but he left behind a
rich and extensive recorded archive. He was also interviewed on numerous
occasions, so Saint-Pierre had plenty of primary sources to draw from. We do
indeed hear Peterson recall his sink-or-swim debut and also listen to him
self-deprecatingly tell the famous story of how he erroneously assumed an Art Tatum
record was a piano duo, which is probably the second most famous event in the
O.P. creation story. Fans would probably prefer to hear more about his great
trios, but Saint-Pierre opts for the personal side of Peterson, in which he
forthrightly admitted the demands of his profession put unfair stress on his
first wife.
We
hear a great deal of the Peterson touch in Oscar
and it still sounds sophisticated yet infectious. The film is also attractive
looking, frequently framing the archival performances and interviews in suitably
urbane animated foregrounds. Saint-Pierre and animator Brigitte Archambault
previously collaborated on the documentary short McLaren’s Negatives, which explored the creative process of Canadian
animator Norman McLaren, whose 1949 short Begone Dull Care was scored by Mr. O.P., so presumably they shared a full understanding
of Peterson’s significance as well as a strong working relationship—at least we
would so assume from the stylish finished film.