Posts tagged Oscar Peterson

On August 11, the Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a new $1 coin to honor world renowned pianist Oscar Peterson, who was born in 1925 and raised in the area now known as Little Burgundy. Designed by artist Valentine De Landro, the coin began circulating on Peterson’s birthday, August 15. He was born in 1925. Since his death in 2007, the jazz legend’s name has been thrown in for commemorating his legacy posthumously with several honors. Kelly Peterson, Oscar’s widow, has been an outspoken leader (naturally) for re-naming Montreal’s Lionel-Groulx Metro station in honour of Oscar Peterson. This motion has been …

The legacy of Oscar Peterson lives on in a recently released minute-long video that captures his meteoric rise from the bosom of Little Burgundy to the most celebrated stages on the global Jazz circuit. The Heritage Minute produced by Historica Canada starts with the delivery of a piano to the Peterson’s household, where Oscar honed his skills under the watchful eyes of his sister Daisy and his father Daniel. As the heritage Minute story goes: “My dad was a railway porter, just about the only job as Black man could get. But he had big plans for us. Music would …