Clark Terry
Clark Terry in New York City, 1976
Background information
Born	(1920-12-14) December 14, 1920 (age 91) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Genres	Swing, bop, jazz
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Trumpet, flugelhorn
Years active	1940s–present

Clark Terry (born December 14, 1920)^[1] is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Only three other trumpet players in history have ever received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award: Louis Armstrong (Clark's old mentor), Miles Davis (whom Clark mentored), and Dizzy Gillespie (who often described Clark as the greatest jazz trumpet player on earth). Clark Terry is one of the most prolific jazz musicians in history, having appeared on 905 known recording sessions, which makes him the most recorded trumpet player of all time. In comparison, Louis Armstrong performed on 620 sessions, Harry "Sweets" Edison on 563, and Dizzy Gillespie on 501.

He has played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–1951),^[1] Duke Ellington (1951–1959)^[1] and Quincy Jones (1960), and has recorded regularly both as a leader and sideman. In all, his career in jazz spans more than sixty years.

Biography[link]

Clark Terry at Monterey Jazz Festival, 1981

Terry was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Vashon High School and began his professional career in the early 1940s playing, in local clubs. He served as a bandsman in the United States Navy during World War II.

Terry's years with Basie and Ellington in the late 1940s and 1950s established him as a world-class jazz artist. Blending the St. Louis tone with contemporary styles, Terry’s sound influenced a generation. During this period, he took part in many of Ellington's suites and acquired a reputation for his wide range of styles (from swing to hard bop), technical proficiency, and good humor. Terry exerted a positive influence on musicians like Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, both of whom acknowledge Clark's influence during the early stages of their careers. Terry had informally taught Davis while they were still in St Louis.

After leaving Ellington, Clark's international recognition soared when he accepted an offer from the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to become its first African-American staff musician. He appeared for ten years on The Tonight Show as a member of the Tonight Show Band, first led by Skitch Henderson and later by Doc Severinsen, where his unique "mumbling" scat singing became famous when he scored a hit with "Mumbles." A persistent rumor is that Terry was a candidate to lead the band, but for racial skittishness on the part of NBC.

Terry continued to play with musicians such as J. J. Johnson and Oscar Peterson,^[2] and led a group with Bob Brookmeyer that achieved popularity in the early 1960s. In the 1970s, Terry concentrated increasingly on the flugelhorn, which he plays with a full, ringing tone. In addition to his studio work and teaching at jazz workshops, Terry toured regularly in the 1980s with small groups (including Peterson's) and performed as the leader of his Big B-A-D Band (formed about 1970). After financial difficulties forced him to break up the Big B-A-D Band, he performed bands such as the Unifour Jazz Ensemble. His humor and command of jazz trumpet styles are apparent in his "dialogues" with himself, on different instruments or on the same instrument, muted and unmuted. He has occasionally performed solos on a trumpet or flugelhorn mouthpiece.

From the 1970s through the 1990s, Clark performed at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, and Lincoln Center, toured with the Newport Jazz All Stars and Jazz at the Philharmonic, and he was featured with Skitch Henderson's New York Pops Orchestra. In 1998, Terry recorded George Gershwin's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. In 2001, he again recorded for the Red Hot Organization with artist Amel Larrieux for the compilation album Red Hot + Indigo, a tribute to Duke Ellington.

Prompted early in his career by Dr. Billy Taylor, Clark and Milt Hinton bought instruments for and gave instruction to young hopefuls which planted the seed that became Jazz Mobile in Harlem. This venture tugged at Clark's greatest love: involving youth in the perpetuation of jazz. Between global performances, Clark continues to share wholeheartedly his jazz expertise and encourage students, including up-and-coming young jazz trumpeter, Josh Shpak. Since 2000, Clark has hosted Clark Terry Jazz Festivals on land and sea, held his own jazz camps, and appeared in more than fifty jazz festivals on six continents.

His career as both leader and sideman with more than three hundred recordings demonstrates that he is one of the most prolific luminaries in jazz. Clark composed more than two hundred jazz songs and performed for seven U.S. Presidents.

He also has several recordings with major groups including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Dutch Metropole Orchestra, the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, hundreds of high school and college ensembles, his own duos, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, octets, and two big bands: Clark Terry's Big Bad Band and Clark Terry's Young Titans of Jazz, with the likes of Branford Marsalis, Conrad Herwig, Brad Leali, Stephen Guerra, Adam Schroeder, Frank Greene and Tony Lujan. The Clark Terry Archive at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, contains instruments, tour posters, awards, original copies of over 70 big band arrangements, recordings and other memorabilia.

Terry was a long-time resident of Bayside, Queens, and Corona, Queens, New York.^[3] He and his wife, Gwen, later moved to Haworth, New Jersey.^[4] They currently reside in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.^[5]

Awards and honors[link]

• Over 250 awards, medals and honors, including:
• The 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, two Grammy certificates, three Grammy nominations
• The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Award in 1991
• Sixteen honorary doctorates
• Keys to several cities
• Jazz Ambassador for U.S. State Department tours in the Middle East and Africa
• A knighthood in Germany
• Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award, presented by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity in 1985. Terry was awareded honorary membership in the Fraternity by the Beta Zeta Chapter at the College of Emporia in 1968. He was also made an honorary member of the Iota Phi chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity in 2011.
• The French Order of Arts and Letters (2000)
• A life-sized wax figure for the Black World History Museum in St. Louis
• Inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame (1996)^[6]
• NARAS Present's Merit Award (2005)
• Trumpeter of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association (2005)

Discography[link]

Clark Terry performs with the Great Lakes Navy Band Jazz Ensemble

As leader[link]

• Clark Terry with Quentin Jackson/Martial Solal/Kenny Clarke (Disques Swing, 1955)
• Introducing Clark Terry (EmArcy, 1955)
• Serenade to a Bus Seat (Riverside/OJC, 1957)
• Duke with a Difference (Riverside/OJC, 1957)
• In Orbit (with Thelonious Monk, Riverside/OJC, 1958)
• Out on a Limb with Clark Terry (Argo, 1958)
• Top and Bottom Brass feat. Don Butterfield (Riverside/OJC, 1959)
• Paris (Swing, 1960)
• Color Changes (Candid, 1960)
• Everything's Mellow (Prestige, 1961)
• Mellow Moods (Prestige, 1961)
• All American (Prestige, 1962)
• Plays the Jazz Version of "All American" (Moodsville, 1962)
• The Night Life (Mood, 1962)
• Clark Terry & Bob Brookmeyer (Verve, 1962)
• 3 in Jazz (RCA, 1963)
• More (Cameo, 1963)
• Tread Ye Lightly (Cameo, 1963)
• What Makes Sammy Swing (20th Century, 1963)
• The Happy Horns of Clark Terry (Impulse!, 1964)
• The Power of Positive Swinging (Mainstream, 1964)
• Live 1964 (Emerald, 1964)
• Quintet (Mainstream, 1964)
• Tonight (Mainstream, 1964)
• Clark Terry Tonight (Mainstream, 1964)
• Oscar Peterson Trio Plus One Clark Terry (Mercury, 1964)
• The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner (Pablo, 1974) with Big Joe Turner, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry "Sweets" Edison and Roy Eldridge
• Spanish Rice (Impulse!, 1966)
• Gingerbread Men (Mainstream, 1966)
• Mumbles (Mainstream, 1966)
• Angyumaluma Bongliddleany Nannyany Awhan Yi! (Mainstream, 1966)
• It's What's Happening - The Varitone Sound of CT' (Impulse!, 1967)
• Music in the Garden (Jazz Heritage, 1968)
• At the Montreux Jazz Festival (Polydor, 1969)
• Live on 57th Street (Big Bear, 1969)
• Big B-A-D Band In Concert, Live 1970... (EToile, 1970)
• Live at the Wichita Jazz Festival (Vanguard, 1974)
• Clark Terry and His Jolly Giants (Vanguard, 1975)
• Live at the Wichita Jazz Festival (Vanguard, 1975)
• Oscar Peterson and Clark Terry (Pablo, 1975)
• Oscar Peterson and The Trumpet Kings – Jousts (Pablo, 1975)
• Clark Terry's Big B-A-D Band Live at Buddy's... (Vanguard, 1976)
• Live at the Jazz House (Pausa, 1976)
• Wham (BASF, 1976)
• Squeeze Me (Chiaroscuro, 1976)
• The Globetrotter (Vanguard, 1977)
• Out of Nowhere (Bingow, 1978)
• Brahms Lullabye (Amplitude, 1978)
• Funk Dumplin's (Matrix, 1978)
• Clark After Dark (MPS, 1978)
• Mother______! Mother______! (Pablo, 1979)
• Ain't Misbehavin' (Pablo, 1979)
• Live in Chicago, Vol. 1 (Monad, 1979)
• Live in Chicago, Vol. 2 (Monad, 1979)
• The Trumpet Summit Meets the Oscar Peterson Big 4 (1980)
• Memories of Duke (Pablo/OJC, 1980)
• Yes, the Blues (Pablo/OJC, 1981)
• Jazz at the Philharmonic - Yoyogi National Stadium, Tokyo 1983: Return to Happiness (1983)
• To Duke and Basie (Rhino, 1986)
• Jive at Five (Enja, 1986)
• Metropole Orchestra (Mons, 1988)
• Portraits (Chesky, 1988) - with Don Friedman (p), Victor Gaskin (b) Lewis Nash (d)
• The Clark Terry Spacemen (Chiaroscuro, 1989)
• Locksmith Blues (Concord Jazz, 1989)
• Having Fun (Delos, 1990)
• Live at the Village Gate (Chesky, 1990)
• Live at the Village Gate: Second Set (Chesky, 1990)
• What a Wonderful World: For Lou (Red Baron, 1993)
• Shades of Blues (Challenge, 1994)
• Remember the Time (Mons, 1994)
• With Pee Wee Claybrook & Swing Fever (D' Note, 1995)
• Top and Bottom Brass'[' (Chiaroscuro, 1995)
• Reunion (D'Note, 1995)
• Express (Reference, 1995)
• Good Things in Life (Mons, 1996)
• Ow (E.J.s) 1996)
• The Alternate Blues (Analogue, 1996)
• Ritter der Ronneburg, 1998 (Mons, 1998)
• One on One (Chesky, 2000)
• A Jazz Symphony (Centaur, 2000)
• Herr Ober: Live at Birdland Neuburg (Nagel-Heyer, 2001)
• Live on QE2 (Chiaroscuro, 2001)
• Jazz Matinee (Hanssler, 2001)
• The Hymn (Candid, 2001)
• Clark Terry and His Orchestra Featuring Paul Gonsalves [1959] (Storyville, 2002)
• Live in Concert (Image, 2002)
• Flutin' and Fluglin (Past Perfect, 2002)
• Friendship (Columbia, 2002)
• Live! At Buddy's Place (Universe, 2003)
• Live at Montmarte June 1975 (Storyville, 2003)
• George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess (A440 Music Group, 2004)
• Live at Marian's with the Terry's Young Titan's of Jazz (Chiaroscuro, 2005)

As sideman[link]

Terry performed at the White House with singer Nnenna Freelon in 2006

With Gary Burton

• Who is Gary Burton? (RCA, 1962)

With Tadd Dameron

• The Magic Touch (1962)

With Duke Ellington

• Such Sweet Thunder (1957)
• Ellington at Newport (1958)

With Dizzy Gillespie

• Gillespiana (Verve, 1960)
• Carnegie Hall Concert (Verve, 1961)
• The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner (Pablo, 1974) with Big Joe Turner, Roy Eldridge and Harry "Sweets" Edison
• The Trumpet Summit Meets the Oscar Peterson Big 4 (Pablo, 1980) - with Freddie Hubbard and Oscar Peterson
• The Alternate Blues (Pablo, 1980) - with Freddie Hubbard and Oscar Peterson

With Dave Grusin

• Homage to Duke (1993)

With Lionel Hampton

• You Better Know It!!! (Impulse!, 1965)

With Chico Hamilton

• The Further Adventures of El Chico (Impulse!, 1966)

With Milt Jackson

• Big Bags (Riverside, 1962)
• For Someone I Love (Riverside, 1963)
• Ray Brown / Milt Jackson with Ray Brown (Verve, 1965)

With Elvin Jones

• Summit Meeting (Vanguard, 1976) with James Moody, Bunky Green and Roland Prince

With Gary McFarland

• Tijuana Jazz (Impulse!, 1965)

With Blue Mitchell

• Smooth as the Wind (1961)
• A Sure Thing (1962)

With the Modern Jazz Quartet

• Jazz Dialogue (Atlantic, 1965)

With Oliver Nelson

• Oliver Nelson Plays Michelle (Impulse!, 1966)
• Happenings with Hank Jones (Impulse!, 1966)
• The Spirit of '67 with Pee Wee Russell (Impulse!, 1967)

With Chico O'Farrill

• Nine Flags (Impulse!, 1966)

With Sonny Rollins

• Brass & Trio (1958)

With Lalo Schifrin

• New Fantasy (Verve, 1964)
• Once a Thief and Other Themes (Verve, 1965)

With Cecil Taylor

• New York City R&B (1961)

With Various artists

• The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World (1967)

Bibliography[link]

• Let's Talk Trumpet: From Legit to Jazz
• Interpretation of the Jazz Language
• Clark Terry's System of Circular Breathing for Woodwind and Brass Instruments
• TerryTunes, anthology of 60 original compositions (1st ed., 1972; 2nd ed. w/doodle-tonguing chapter, 2009)
• Ellington, Duke. “Clark Terry,” chapter in Music is My Mistress (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973): 229-230.
• “Clark Terry – Jazz Ambassador: C.T.’s Diary” [cover portrait] Jazz Journal International 31 (May 6, 1978): 7-8.
• Beach, Doug. “Clark Terry and the St. Louis Trumpet Sound,” Instrumentalist 45 (April 1991): 8-12.
• Bernotas, Bob. “Clark Terry,” Jazz Player 1 (October–November 1994): 12-19.
• LaBarbera, John. “Clark Terry: More Than ‘Mumbles’,” ITG Journal [International Trumpet Guild] 19, No. 2 (1994): 36-41.
• Blumenthal, Bob. “Reflections on a Brilliant Career” [reprint of Jazz Times 25, No. 8], Jazz Educators Journal 29, No. 4 (1997): 30-33, 36-37.
• Morgenstern, Dan. “Clark Terry” in Living With Jazz: A Reader (New York: Pantheon, 2004): 196-201. [Reprint of Down Beat 34 (June 1, 1967): 16-18.
• Owens, Thomas. “Trumpeters: Clark Terry” in Bebop: The Music and the Players (New York: Oxford, 1995): 111-113.
• “Jazz for the Record”[Clark Terry Archive at William Paterson University], New York Times (December 11, 2004).
• “Clark: The Autobiography of Clark Terry” (University of California Press: 2011), Review of book

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Clark Terry

• Clark Terry's Official Website
• CLARK: The Autobiography of Clark Terry | by Clark Terry, with Gwen Terry
• Performance images - live at Jazz Alley, Seattle
• Verve Records
• Allmusic
• "Profile: Clark Terry" by Arnold Jay Smith (www.jazz.com)
• Clark Terry's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project

Clark
Family name
A scribe or clerk, the occupation from which the name derives
Meaning	Clerk, scribe, secretary
Region of origin	England
Language(s) of origin	Old English
Related names	Clarke, Clerk
Footnotes: Frequency Comparisons[1]

Clark is an English surname in the English language, ultimately derived from the Latin clericus meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educated or a old man with a moustache. Clark evolved from "clerk". First records of the name are found in 12th century England. The name has many variants.^[2]

Clark is the twenty-seventh most common surname in the United Kingdom.^[1]

According to the 1990 United States Census, Clark was the twenty-first most frequently encountered surname, accounting for 0.23% of the population.^[3]

Clark is also an occasional given name, as in the case of Clark Gable.

Probably the most famouse person named Clark is Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman

List of people with surname Clark[link]

People with the surname Clark include:

• Abraham Clark (1725–1794), American politician and Revolutionary War figure
• Alan Clark (1928–1999), British Conservative politician and author, son of Kenneth Clark
• Allen George Clark (1898–1962), British businessman
• Andy Clark (musician), British musician
• Anne Clark (born 1960), poet-songwriter
• Benjamin S. W. Clark (1829–1912), New York politician
• Billy J. Clark (1778–1866), New York physician and politician
• Bob Clark (Benjamin "Bob" Clark) (1941–2007), American director
• Brian Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Buddy Clark (1911–1949), American singer
• Carmel Clark (born 1965), New Zealand swimmer
• Catherine Clark (born 1976), Canadian television host
• Charles Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Chris Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Christian Clark (born 1979), Australian actor
• Claudine Clark, R&B singer and performer of the 1962 hit record "Party Lights"
• Colin Clark (disambiguation)
• Corrie Clark (born 1982), American breaststroke swimmer
• Dallas Clark, American football player
• Daniel Clark (Canadian politician and actor), Canadian actor
• Daniel Kinnear Clark (1822–1896), British railway mechanical engineer
• Darius Clark (1798–1871), New York physician and politician
• Dave Clark (musician) (born 1942), drummer of The Dave Clark Five
• David Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Davis Wasgatt Clark (1812–1871), American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church
• Dick Clark (disambiguation), several people
  • Dick Clark (1929–2012), entertainer and producer, host of Pyramid and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve
• Douglas Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Duncan Clark (1910–2007), an American public health specialist
• Duncan Clark (athlete) (1915–2003), Scottish hammer thrower
• Dwight Clark, American football player
• Ernest Clark (1912–1994), British actor
• Eugene Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Frank Clark (footballer), English football player
  • Frank M. Clark (1915–2003), American Congressman
• Gavin Brown Clark (1846–1930), MP for Caithness
• George Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Gerry Clark (1927–1999), New Zealand sailor and ornithologist
• Ginger Clark (1879–1943), American baseball pitcher
• Glenn Clark (born 1969), Canadian coach of Toronto Rock
• Helen Clark (born 1950), Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008
• Hilda Clark (1872–1932), American Coca-Cola advertising spokesperson
• Hilda Margery Clarke (born 1926), English painter and curator
• Horace Clark, 1830s New York politician
• Horace F. Clark (1815–1873), US Congressman from New York
• Hugh Massey Clark (1886–1956), New York philatelist
• Hulda Regehr Clark, alternative medicine practitioner
• Isabella Clark, wife of Prime Minister of Canada Sir John A. Macdonald
• Jack Clark (disambiguation), several people
• James Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Jeff Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Joe Clark (born 1939), former Prime Minister of Canada
• John Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Jonas Gilman Clark (1815–1900), American businessman and the founder of Clark University
• Joseph Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Joshua Clark, (born 1980), American writer
• Karen Clark (born 1945), American politician from Minnesota
• Katy Clark (born 1967), British politician and trade union official
• Kenneth Clark (psychologist) (1914–2005), African American psychologist who testified in Brown v. Board of Education
• Kenneth Clark (1902–1983), British art historian; creator of the series Civilisation
• Leslie J. Clark (1924–2003), British engineer and founder of Parvalux
• Louis Clark, musician and conductor with the Orchestra (former members of ELO and ELO Part II)
• Manning Clark (1915–1991), Australian historian
• Marcus R. Clark (born 1956), Louisiana Supreme Court justice
• Mark Wayne Clark (1896–1984), American Army General in WW2 (Italy) and the Korean War
• Nancy B. Clark, person of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts
• Ocky Clark (born 1960), American middle distance runner
• Orville Clark (1801–1862), New York politician
• Otey Clark (born 1915), American baseball pitcher
• Ramsey Clark (born 1927), U.S. Attorney General and activist
• Ranza Clark (born 1961), Canadian middle distance runner
• Roger Clark, British rally driver
• Ryan Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Samuel Clark (disambiguation), several people
  • Samuel Delbert Clark (1910–2003), Canadian sociologist
• Sherman Clark (1899–1980), American Olympic rower and Rear Admiral
• Simon Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Steve Clark (1960–1991), British guitarist for Def Leppard
• Stuart Clark (born 1975), Australian cricketer
• Theresa Maria Clark (c. 1890 – 1953), person of New York
• Thomas Clark (disambiguation), several people
• Tom Clark (journalist), Canadian television journalist
• Tom C. Clark (1899–1977), U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Supreme Court justice
• Tracy Clark, fictional character from The CW primetime drama 90210
• Wendel Clark (born 1966), retired Canadian ice hockey player
• Wesley K. Clark (born 1944), American Army General in the Vietnam War and Kosovo
• Wilfrid Le Gros Clark (1895–1971), British palaeanthropologist
• Will Clark (born 1964), American baseball player
• William Clark (disambiguation), several people

See also[link]

• The Clark Sisters, American gospel vocalists from Detroit
• Clark (taxonomic authority)
• Clarke
• Clerke (disambiguation)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Clark(e) Surname DNA Project

This page or section lists people with the surname Clark. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.

Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters at the opening of Peaches Records & Tapes in Rockville, Maryland
Background information
Birth name	McKinley Morganfield
Born	(1913-04-04)April 4, 1913 Issaquena County, Mississippi, United States
Died	April 30, 1983(1983-04-30) (aged 70) Westmont, Illinois, United States
Genres	Blues, Chicago blues, country blues, electric blues
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, harmonica
Years active	1941–1982
Labels	Aristocrat, Chess, Testament
Website	www.muddywaters.com
Notable instruments
Gibson Les Paul Fender Telecaster

McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 – April 30, 1983), known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues". He was a major inspiration for the British blues explosion in the 1960s,^[1] and was ranked No. 17 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[2]

Early life[link]

Although in his later years Muddy usually said that he was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, in 1915, he was actually born at Jug's Corner in neighboring Issaquena County, Mississippi, in 1913.^[3] Recent research has uncovered documentation showing that in the 1930s and 1940s he reported his birth year as 1913 on both his marriage license and musicians' union card. A 1955 interview in the Chicago Defender is the earliest claim of 1915 as his year of birth, which he continued to use in interviews from that point onward. The 1920 census lists him as five years old as of March 6, 1920, suggesting that his birth year may have been 1914. The Social Security Death Index, relying on the Social Security card application submitted after his move to Chicago in the mid 1940s, lists him as being born April 4, 1915. Muddy's gravestone lists his birth year as 1915.

His grandmother Della Grant raised him after his mother died shortly after his birth. Most sources wrongly cite that his fondness for playing in mud earned him the nickname "Muddy" at an early age. He then changed it to "Muddy Water" and finally "Muddy Waters" however this is a misconception that was thought to have originated as a derogatory spin on his nickname that was generally accepted amongst a non African American community during the late 1920's and early 1930's, which persisted and became the common reference.

When the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 occurred, the majority of the African American community was neglected in regards to relief from the destruction of the natural disaster, while the community observed what they perceived as preferential treatment afforded to the Caucasian population, especially the more wealthy inhabitants.

Herbert Hoover was in charge of flood relief operations and it was during this time that the African American community in Mississippi viewed the treatment that they were given compared to Caucasian citizens unequal. Many African Americans were actually conscripted to help with the relief effort. This caused tension to run high with citizens from the community, refusing to work, in some cases, as they felt they were treated with blatant disregard to their health and civil rights. In some reported events, African Americans who refused were fired upon by supervising officials. The timing of these events occurred not long before the upcoming presidential election and the African American community as a whole looked towards political reform.

Reports from The Colored Advisory Commission were kept secret from the media by Herbert Hoover as he promised further reforms for African Americans after the presidential election. However, as the community saw no apparent change leading up to the election, the commission called for African Americans to switch allegiance from the Republican party to Franklin Roosevelt of The Democrats, as many citizens had moved north, most notably to Chicago, where the blues scene followed. Morganfield reflected on the carnage he saw in his community, saying they had nothing left but muddy waters all around them. He then took the nickname of Muddy Waters, feeling that it was a very good reflection of the music that he played. Some very notable blues musicians wrote songs specifically about the flood, such as Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Charlie Patton, and Muddy himself. The song, "When The Levee Breaks" that was covered by Led Zeppelin, was written about the flood.

The actual shack where Muddy Waters lived in his youth on Stovall Plantation is now located at the Delta Blues Museum at 1 Blues Alley in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He started out on harmonica, but by age seventeen he was playing the guitar at parties, emulating two blues artists who were extremely popular in the south, Son House and Robert Johnson. "His thick heavy voice, the dark coloration of his tone, and his firm, almost solid, personality were all clearly derived from House," wrote music critic Peter Guralnick in Feel Like Going Home, "but the embellishments, which he added, the imaginative slide technique and more agile rhythms, were closer to Johnson."^{[page needed]}

On November 20, 1932, Muddy married Mabel Berry; Robert Nighthawk played guitar at the wedding, and the party reportedly got so wild the floor fell in.^{[citation needed]} Mabel left Muddy three years later when Muddy's first child was born; the child's mother was Leola Spain, sixteen years old (Leola later used her maiden name Brown), "married to a man named Steven" and "going with a guy named Tucker". Leola was the only one of his girlfriends with whom Muddy would stay in touch throughout his life; they never married. By the time he finally cut out for Chicago in 1943, there was another Mrs. Morganfield left behind, a girl called Sallie Ann.^[4]

Early career[link]

In 1940, Muddy moved to Chicago for the first time. He played with Silas Green a year later, and then returned to Mississippi. In the early part of the decade he ran a juke joint, complete with gambling, moonshine, and a jukebox; he also performed music there himself. In the summer of 1941, Alan Lomax went to Stovall, Mississippi, on behalf of the Library of Congress, to record various country blues musicians. "He brought his stuff down and recorded me right in my house," Muddy recalled in Rolling Stone, "and when he played back the first song I sounded just like anybody's records. Man, you don't know how I felt that Saturday afternoon when I heard that voice and it was my own voice. Later on he sent me two copies of the pressing and a check for twenty bucks, and I carried that record up to the corner and put it on the jukebox. Just played it and played it and said, 'I can do it, I can do it.'" Lomax came back in July 1942 to record Muddy again. Both sessions were eventually released as Down On Stovall's Plantation on the Testament label.^[5] The complete recordings were re-issued on CD as Muddy Waters: The Complete Plantation Recordings. The historic 1941-42 Library of Congress field recordings by Chess Records in 1993, and re-mastered in 1997.^[6]

In 1943, Muddy headed back to Chicago with the hope of becoming a full-time professional musician. He lived with a relative for a short period while driving a truck and working in a factory by day and performing at night. Big Bill Broonzy, then one of the leading bluesmen in Chicago, helped Muddy break into the very competitive market by allowing him to open for his shows in the rowdy clubs.^[7] In 1945, Muddy's uncle, Joe Grant, gave him his first electric guitar, which enabled him to be heard above the noisy crowds.^[8]

In 1946, he recorded some tunes for Mayo Williams at Columbia but they were not released at the time. Later that year he began recording for Aristocrat Records, a newly-formed label run by two brothers, Leonard and Phil Chess. In 1947, he played guitar with Sunnyland Slim on piano on the cuts "Gypsy Woman" and "Little Anna Mae." These were also shelved, but in 1948, "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel Like Going Home" became big hits and his popularity in clubs began to take off. Soon after, Aristocrat changed their label name to Chess Records and Muddy's signature tune "Rollin' Stone" also became a smash hit.

Commercial success[link]

Initially, the Chess brothers would not allow Muddy to use his own guitar in the recording studio; instead he was provided with a backing bass by Ernest "Big" Crawford, or by musicians assembled specifically for the recording session, including "Baby Face" Leroy Foster and Johnny Jones. Gradually Chess relented, and by September 1953 he was recording with one of the most acclaimed blues groups in history: Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, Elga Edmonds (a.k.a. Elgin Evans) on drums and Otis Spann on piano. The band recorded a series of blues classics during the early 1950s, some with the help of bassist/songwriter Willie Dixon, including "Hoochie Coochie Man" (Number 8 on the R&B charts), "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (Number 4), and "I'm Ready". These three were "the most macho songs in his repertoire," wrote Robert Palmer in Rolling Stone. "Muddy would never have composed anything so unsubtle. But they gave him a succession of showstoppers and an image, which were important for a bluesman trying to break out of the grind of local gigs into national prominence."^{[citation needed]}

Along with his former harmonica player Little Walter Jacobs and recent southern transplant Howlin' Wolf, Muddy reigned over the early 1950s Chicago blues scene, his band becoming a proving ground for some of the city's best blues talent. While Little Walter continued a collaborative relationship long after he left Muddy's band in 1952, appearing on most of Muddy's classic recordings throughout the 1950s, Muddy developed a long-running, generally good-natured rivalry with Wolf. The success of Muddy's ensemble paved the way for others in his group to break away and enjoy their own solo careers. In 1952 Little Walter left when his single "Juke" became a hit, and in 1955 Rogers quit to work exclusively with his own band, which had been a sideline until that time. Although he continued working with Muddy's band, Otis Spann enjoyed a solo career and many releases under his own name beginning in the mid-1950s.

England and low profile[link]

Muddy headed to England in 1958 and shocked audiences (whose only previous exposure to blues had come via the acoustic folk/blues sounds of acts such as Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Big Bill Broonzy) with his loud, amplified electric guitar and thunderous beat. His performance at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, recorded and released as his first live album, At Newport 1960, helped turn on a whole new generation to Muddy's sound. He expressed dismay when he realized that members of his own race were turning their backs on the genre while a white audience had shown increasing respect for the blues.

However, for the better part of twenty years (since his last big hit in 1956, "I'm Ready") Muddy was put on the back shelf by the Chess label and recorded albums with various "popular" themes: Brass And The Blues, Electric Mud, etc. In 1967, he joined forces with Bo Diddley, Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf to record the Super Blues and The Super Super Blues Band pair of albums of Chess blues standards. In 1972 he went back to England to record The London Muddy Waters Sessions with Rory Gallagher, Steve Winwood, Rick Grech and Mitch Mitchell — but their playing was not up to his standards. "These boys are top musicians, they can play with me, put the book before 'em and play it, you know," he told Guralnick. "But that ain't what I need to sell my people, it ain't the Muddy Waters sound. An' if you change my sound, then you gonna change the whole man."

Muddy's sound was basically Delta blues electrified, but his use of microtones, in both his vocals and slide playing, made it extremely difficult to duplicate and follow correctly.^{[citation needed]} "When I play on the stage with my band, I have to get in there with my guitar and try to bring the sound down to me. But no sooner than I quit playing, it goes back to another, different sound. My blues look so simple, so easy to do, but it's not. They say my blues is the hardest blues in the world to play."^[9]

Comeback[link]

Muddy Waters with James Cotton; 1971

Muddy's long-time wife Geneva died of cancer on March 15, 1973. A devastated Muddy was taken to a doctor and told to quit smoking, which he did. Gaining custody of some of his "outside kids", he moved them into his home, eventually buying a new house in Westmont, Illinois. Another teenage daughter turned up while on tour in New Orleans; Big Bill Morganfield was introduced to his Dad after a gig in Florida. Florida was also where Muddy met his future wife, the 19-year-old Marva Jean Brooks whom he nicknamed "Sunshine".^[10]

On November 25, 1976, Muddy Waters performed at The Band's farewell concert at Winterland in San Francisco. The concert was released as both a record and a film, The Last Waltz, featuring a performance of "Mannish Boy" with Paul Butterfield on harmonica.

In 1977 Johnny Winter convinced his label, Blue Sky, to sign Muddy, the beginning of a fruitful partnership. His "comeback" LP, Hard Again, was recorded in just two days and was a return to the original Chicago sound he had created 25 years earlier, thanks to Winter's production. Former sideman James Cotton contributed harmonica on the Grammy Award-winning album and a brief but well-received tour followed.

The Muddy Waters Blues Band at the time included guitarists Sammy Lawhorn, Bob Margolin and Luther "Snake Boy" Johnson, pianist Pinetop Perkins, harmonica player Jerry Portnoy, bassist Calvin "Fuzz" Jones and drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. On "Hard Again", Winter played guitar in addition to producing; Muddy asked James Cotton to play harp on the session, and Cotton brought his own bassist Charles Calmese. According to Margolin's liner notes, Muddy did not play guitar during these sessions. The album covers a broad spectrum of styles, from the opening of "Mannish Boy", with shouts and hollers throughout, to the old-style Delta blues of "I Can't Be Satisfied", with a National Steel solo by Winter, to Cotton's screeching intro to "The Blues Had a Baby", to the moaning closer "Little Girl". Its live feel harks back to the Chess Records days, and it evokes a feeling of intimacy and cooperative musicianship. The expanded reissue includes one bonus track, a remake of the 1950s single "Walking Through the Park". The other outtakes from the album sessions appear on King Bee. Margolin's notes state that the reissued album was remastered but that remixing was not considered to be necessary. Hard Again was the first studio collaboration between Muddy and Winter, who produced his final four albums, the others being I'm Ready, King Bee, and Muddy "Mississippi" Waters - Live, for Blue Sky, a Columbia Records subsidiary.^{[citation needed]}

In 1978, Winter recruited two of Muddy's cohorts from the early 1950s, Big Walter Horton and Jimmy Rogers, and brought in the rest of his touring band at the time (harmonica player Jerry Portnoy, guitarist Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, and bassist Calvin Jones) to record I'm Ready which came close to the critical and commercial success of Hard Again.

The comeback continued in 1979 with the lauded LP Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live. "Muddy was loose for this one," wrote Jas Obrecht in Guitar Player, "and the result is the next best thing to being ringside at one of his foot-thumping, head-nodding, downhome blues shows." On the album, Muddy is accompanied by his touring band, augmented by Johnny Winter on guitar. The set list contains most of his biggest hits, and the album has an energetic feel. King Bee the following year concluded Waters' reign at Blue Sky, and these last four LPs turned out to be his biggest-selling albums ever. King Bee was the last album Muddy Waters recorded. Coming last in a trio of studio outings produced by Johnny Winter, it is also a mixed bag. During the sessions for King Bee, Muddy, his manager and his band were involved in a dispute over money. According to the liner notes by Bob Margolin, the conflict arose from Muddy's health being on the wane and consequently playing fewer engagements. The bandmembers wanted more money for each of the fewer gigs they did play in order to make ends meet. Ultimately a split occurred and the entire band quit. Because of the tensions in the studio preceding the split, Winter felt the sessions had not produced enough solid material to yield an entire album. He subsequently filled out King Bee with outtakes from earlier Blue Sky sessions and the cover photograph was by David Michael Kennedy. For the listener, King Bee is a leaner and meaner record. Less of the good-time exuberance present on the previous two outings is present here. The title track, "Mean Old Frisco", "Sad Sad Day", and "I Feel Like Going Home", are all blues with ensemble work. The Sony Legacy issue features completely remastered sound and Margolin's notes, and also hosts two bonus tracks from the King Bee sessions that Winter did not see fit to release the first time.^{[citation needed]}

In 1981, Muddy Waters was invited to perform at ChicagoFest, the city's top outdoor music festival. He was joined onstage by Johnny Winter—who had successfully produced his most recent albums—and played classics like “Mannish Boy,” “Trouble No More” and “Mojo Working” to a new generation of fans. This historic performance was made available on DVD in 2009 by Shout! Factory.

In 1982, declining health dramatically curtailed Muddy's performance schedule. His last public performance took place when he sat in with Eric Clapton's band at a Clapton concert in Florida in autumn of 1982.

Death[link]

On April 30, 1983 Muddy Waters died in his sleep from heart failure, at his home in Westmont, Illinois. At his funeral at Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, throngs of blues musicians and fans showed up to pay tribute to one of the true originals of the art form. "Muddy was a master of just the right notes," John P. Hammond, told Guitar World magazine. "It was profound guitar playing, deep and simple... more country blues transposed to the electric guitar, the kind of playing that enhanced the lyrics, gave profundity to the words themselves." Two years after his death, Chicago honored him by designating the one-block section between 900 and 1000 E. 43rd Street near his former home on the south side "Honorary Muddy Waters Drive".^[11] The Chicago suburb of Westmont, where Waters lived the last decade of his life, named a section of Cass Avenue near his home "Honorary Muddy Waters Way".^[12] Following Waters' death, fellow blues musician B.B. King (who was hugely influenced by Waters) told Guitar World, "It's going to be years and years before most people realize how greatly he contributed to American music". Attesting to the historic place of Muddy Waters in the development of the blues in Mississippi, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker has been placed in Clarksdale, Mississippi, by the Mississippi Blues Commission designating the site of Muddy Waters' cabin to commemorate his importance.^[13]

Influence[link]

His influence is tremendous, over a variety of music genres: blues, rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, hard rock, folk, jazz, and country. He also helped Chuck Berry get his first record contract.

His 1958 tour of England marked possibly the first time amplified, modern urban blues was heard there, although on his first tour he was the only one amplified. His backing was provided by Englishman Chris Barber's trad jazz group. (One critic retreated to the toilets to write his review because he found the band so loud).

The Rolling Stones named themselves after his 1950 song "Rollin' Stone" (also known as "Catfish Blues", which Jimi Hendrix covered as well). Hendrix recalled "the first guitar player I was aware of was Muddy Waters. I first heard him as a little boy and it scared me to death". Cream covered "Rollin' and Tumblin'" on their 1966 debut album Fresh Cream, as Eric Clapton was a big fan of Muddy Waters when he was growing up, and his music influenced Clapton's music career. The song was also covered by Canned Heat at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival and later adapted by Bob Dylan on the album Modern Times. One of Led Zeppelin's biggest hits, "Whole Lotta Love", is lyrically based upon the Muddy Waters hit "You Need Love", written by Willie Dixon. Dixon wrote some of Muddy Waters' most famous songs, including "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (a big radio hit for Etta James, as well as the 1970s rock band Foghat), "Hoochie Coochie Man", which The Allman Brothers Band famously covered, and "I'm Ready", which was covered by Humble Pie. In 1993, Paul Rodgers released the album Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters, on which he covered a number of Muddy Waters songs, including "Louisiana Blues", "Rollin' Stone", "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "I'm Ready" (among others) in collaboration with a number of famous guitarists such as Brian May and Jeff Beck. Angus Young of the rock group AC/DC has cited Muddy Waters as one of his influences.

The song title "You Shook Me All Night Long" came from lyrics of the Muddy Waters song "You Shook Me", written by Willie Dixon and J. B. Lenoir. Earl Hooker first recorded it as an instrumental which was then overdubbed with vocals by Muddy Waters in 1962. Led Zeppelin also covered it on their debut album.

Muddy Waters' songs have been featured in long-time fan Martin Scorsese's movies, including The Color of Money, Goodfellas and Casino. Muddy Waters' 1970s recording of his mid-'50s hit "Mannish Boy" (a.k.a. "I'm A Man") was used in Goodfellas and the hit film Risky Business, and also features in the rockumentary The Last Waltz.

The song "Come Together" by The Beatles references Muddy Waters: "He roller coaster/he got Muddy Waters."

Screenwriter David Simon has written an unproduced teleplay about Muddy Waters' life.^[14]

The 2006 Family Guy episode "Saving Private Brian" includes a parody of Muddy Waters trying to pass a kidney stone; his screams of pain form a call and response with the Chicago blues band in his bathroom.

In 2008, Jeffrey Wright portrayed Muddy in the biopic Cadillac Records, a film about the rise and fall of Chess Records and the lives of its recording artists. A second 2008 film about Leonard Chess and Chess Records, Who Do You Love, also covers Muddy's time at Chess Records.

In the 2009 film The Boat that Rocked about pirate radio in the UK, the cryptic message that late-night DJ Bob gives to Carl to give to Carl's mother is: "Muddy Waters Rocks."

In 1990, the television show Doogie Howser, M.D. featured an episode called "Doogie Sings the Blues" with the main character, Blind Otis Lemon, based on Muddy Waters, with references to his influence on the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, along with the performance of "Got My Mojo Working" by Blind Otis Lemon. He is also referred to as the original "Hoochie Coochie Man".

Awards and recognitions[link]

Grammy Awards[link]

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame[link]

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed four songs of Muddy Waters among the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.^[16]

The Blues Foundation Awards[link]

Inductions[link]

U.S. Postage Stamp

Partial discography[link]

Charting and notable singles[link]

Muddy Waters released approximately sixty singles (120 "sides") during his career, sixteen of which made the charts. These were issued on Chess Records, except for his 1941 recordings for the Library of Congress and his 1947 to early 1950 singles, which were issued on Aristocrat Records. The list shows the peak position the single reached on the Billboard R&B chart.^[19]

Muddy Waters also recorded several singles as a sideman with Jimmy Rogers, Little Walter, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Otis Spann, and others.

Selected albums[link]

Muddy Waters released about thirty albums during his career, including compilation albums. Since his death in 1983, numerous compilation and live albums have been released by a number of record companies (allmusic lists over 200 compilations).^[21] The following lists most of the albums released during his career and the more recent and available compilations released after his death.

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Muddy Waters

• Official website

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson
Peterson in 1977
Background information
Birth name	Oscar Emmanuel Peterson
Born	(1925-08-15)August 15, 1925
Origin	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died	December 23, 2007(2007-12-23) (aged 82) Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Pianist, composer, vocalist
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1945–2007
Labels	Mercury, MPS, Pablo, Telarc, Verve
Website	www.oscarpeterson.com

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson CC CQ OOnt (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends.^[1][2] He released over 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career. He is considered to have been one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time,^[3] having played thousands of live concerts to audiences worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years.

Biography[link]

Peterson was born to immigrants from the West Indies; his father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway.^[4] Peterson grew up in the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal, Quebec. It was in this predominantly black neighbourhood that he found himself surrounded by the jazz culture that flourished in the early 20th century.^[5] At the age of five, Peterson began honing his skills with the trumpet and piano. However, a bout of tuberculosis at age seven prevented him from playing the trumpet again, and so he directed all his attention to the piano. His father, Daniel Peterson, an amateur trumpeter and pianist, was one of his first music teachers, and his sister Daisy taught young Oscar classical piano. Young Oscar was persistent at practising scales and classical etudes daily, and thanks to such arduous practice he developed his astonishing virtuosity.

As a child, Peterson also studied with Hungarian-born pianist Paul de Marky, a student of István Thomán, who was himself a pupil of Franz Liszt, so his training was predominantly based on classical piano. Meanwhile he was captivated by traditional jazz and learned several ragtime pieces and especially the boogie-woogie. At that time Peterson was called "the Brown Bomber of the Boogie-Woogie."^[6]

At age nine Peterson played piano with control that impressed professional musicians. For many years his piano studies included four to six hours of practice daily. Only in his later years did he decrease his daily practice to just one or two hours. In 1940, at age fourteen, Peterson won the national music competition organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After that victory, he dropped out of school and became a professional pianist working for a weekly radio show, and playing at hotels and music halls.

Influences[link]

Some of the artists who influenced Peterson's musicianship during the earlier type of years were Teddy Wilson, Nat "King" Cole, James P. Johnson and Art Tatum, to whom many have tried to compare Peterson in later years.^[7] One of his first exposures to Tatum's musical talents came early in his teen years when his father played Art Tatum's Tiger Rag for him, and Peterson was so intimidated by what he heard that he became disillusioned about his own playing, to the extent of refusing to play the piano at all for several weeks. In his own words, "Tatum scared me to death" and Peterson was "never cocky again" about his mastery at the piano.^[8] Tatum was a model for Peterson's musicianship during the 1940s and 1950s. Tatum and Peterson eventually became good friends, although Peterson was always shy about being compared with Tatum and rarely played the piano in Tatum's presence.

Peterson has also credited his sister Daisy Sweeney — a noted piano teacher in Montreal who also taught several other noted Canadian jazz musicians — with being an important teacher and influence on his career. Under his sister's tutelage, Peterson expanded into classical piano training and broadened his range while mastering the core classical pianism from scales to preludes and fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach.^[9]

Building on Art Tatum's pianism and aesthetics, Peterson also absorbed Tatum's musical influences, notably from piano concertos by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff's harmonizations, as well as direct quotations from his 2nd Piano Concerto, are thrown in here and there in many recordings by Peterson, including his work with the most familiar formulation of the Oscar Peterson Trio, with bassist Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis. During the 1960s and 1970s Peterson made numerous trio recordings highlighting his piano performances that reveal more of his eclectic style that absorbed influences from various genres of jazz, popular and classical music.

Norman Granz[link]

An important step in his career was joining impresario Norman Granz's labels (especially Verve) and Granz's "Jazz at the Philharmonic" project. Granz discovered Peterson in a peculiar manner. As the impresario was being taken to the Montreal airport by cab, the radio was playing a live broadcast of Peterson at a local night club. Granz was so smitten by what he heard that he ordered the driver to take him to the club so that he could meet the pianist. In 1949, Granz introduced Peterson at a Carnegie Hall Jazz at the Philharmonic show in New York.^[10]

So was born a lasting relationship and Granz remained Peterson's manager for most of his career. One poignant illustration: in the last two years of his life, Peterson doted on a boxer dog that he named "Smedley," Peterson's nickname for Granz. On the day of Peterson's death, Smedley lay on the bed with him and would not leave.^[11]

This was more than a managerial relationship; Peterson praised Granz for standing up for him and other black jazz musicians in the segregationist south of the 1950s and 1960s. For example, in the Canadian Broadcasting Company's two-part documentary video Music in the Key of Oscar, Peterson tells how Granz stood up to a gun-toting southern policeman who wanted to stop the trio from using "white-only" taxis. The entire documentary is a fascinating account of Peterson's life from his Montreal childhood, to his career, to his family relations and includes interviews with Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones and Ella Fitzgerald. Its narrative ends in 1993, just before Peterson's debilitating stroke.^[12]

In the course of his career, Peterson developed a reputation as a technically brilliant and melodically inventive jazz pianist and became a regular on Canadian radio from the 1940s. His name was already recognized in the United States. However, his 1949 debut at Carnegie Hall, New York City, arranged by Norman Granz, was uncredited; owing to union restrictions, his appearance could not be billed.^{[citation needed]}

Through Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic he was able to play with the major jazz artists of the time. Some of his musical associates included Ray Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Ben Webster, Milt Jackson, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Ed Thigpen, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Louis Armstrong, Stéphane Grappelli, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Clark Terry, Joe Pass, Anita O'Day, Fred Astaire, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, and Stan Getz.

Duets[link]

Peterson made numerous duo performances and recordings with bassists Ray Brown, Sam Jones, and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, guitarists Joe Pass, Irving Ashby, Herb Ellis, and Barney Kessel, pianists Count Basie, Herbie Hancock, Benny Green, and Keith Emerson, trumpeters Clark Terry and Louis Armstrong, and many other important jazz players. His 1950s duo recordings with bassist Ray Brown mark the formation of one of the longest lasting partnerships in the history of jazz. Peterson's 1970's duo with guitarist Joe Pass has been considered one of the highest standards in the genre.

According to pianist/educator Mark Eisenman, some of Peterson's best playing was as an understated accompanist to singer Ella Fitzgerald and trumpeter Roy Eldridge.^[13]

Trio[link]

Joe Pass and Oscar Peterson at Eastman Theatre Rochester in N.Y.

Peterson redefined the jazz trio by bringing musicianship of all three members to the highest level. The definitive trio with Ray Brown and Herb Ellis was, in his own words "the most stimulating" and productive setting for public performances as well as in studio recordings. In the early 1950s, Peterson began performing with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as the Oscar Peterson Trio. Shortly afterward the drummer Smith was replaced by guitarist Irving Ashby, formerly of the Nat King Cole Trio. Ashby, who was a swing guitarist, was soon replaced by Barney Kessel.^[14] Kessel tired of touring after a year, and was succeeded by Herb Ellis. As Ellis was white, Peterson's trios were racially integrated, a controversial move at the time that was fraught with difficulties with segregationist whites and blacks.

Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival is widely regarded as the landmark album in Peterson's career, and one of the most influential trios in jazz. Their last recording, On the Town with the Oscar Peterson Trio, recorded live at the Town Tavern in Toronto, captured a remarkable degree of emotional as well as musical understanding between three players.^[15] All three musicians were equal contributors involved in a highly sophisticated improvisational interplay. When Herb Ellis left the group in 1958, Peterson and Brown believed they could not adequately replace Ellis. Ellis was replaced by drummer Ed Thigpen in 1959. Brown and Thigpen worked with Peterson on his famous albums Night Train and the successful Canadiana Suite. Brown and Thigpen left in 1965 and were replaced by bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes (and later, drummer Bobby Durham). The trio performed together until 1970. Their albums included pop songs such as The Beatles' "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby". In the fall of 1970, Peterson's trio were successful in their album Tristeza on Piano which was a eulogy of the recently deceased Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, the Monterey Pop Festival stars. This record was released on CD in 1985, went out of print, and then came back remastered in 2005 as an anniversary edition. Selections from this trio's work have been incidentally used for Japanese anime and other live action films. Jones and Durham left in 1970.

In the 1970s Peterson formed another landmark trio with virtuoso guitarist Joe Pass and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass. This trio emulated the success of the 1950s trio with Brown and Ellis, gave acclaimed performances at numerous festivals, and made best-selling recordings, most notably the 1978 double album recorded live in Paris. In 1974 Oscar added British drummer, Martin Drew, and this quartet toured and recorded extensively worldwide. Pass said in a 1976 interview: "The only guys I've heard who come close to total mastery of their instruments are Art Tatum and Peterson".

Quartet[link]

A quartet was a less permanent setting for Peterson, after the trio or duo, as it was hard to find equally powerful musicians available for a tightly knit arrangement with him. After the loss of Ellis his next trio eventually turned into a quartet after he added a drummer — first Gene Gammage for a brief time, then Ed Thigpen. In this group Peterson became the dominant soloist. Later members of the group were Louis Hayes, Bobby Durham, Ray Price, Sam Jones, George Mraz, Martin Drew and Lorne Lofsky.^[3]

Peterson often formed a quartet by adding a fourth player to his existing trios. He was open to experimental collaborations with jazz stars, such as saxophonist Ben Webster, trumpeter Clark Terry, and vibraphonist Milt Jackson among others. In 1961, the Peterson trio with Jackson recorded a highly praised album, Very Tall.

Further career[link]

From the late 1950s, when Peterson gained worldwide recognition as one of the leading pianists in jazz, he played in a variety of settings: solo, duo, trio, quartet, small bands, and big bands. However, his solo piano recitals, as well as his solo piano recordings were rare, until he chose to make a series of solo albums titled "Exclusively for my friends." These solo piano sessions, made for the Musik Produktion Schwarzwald (MPS) label, were Peterson's response to the emergence of such stars as Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner.

Some cognoscenti assert that Peterson's best recordings were made for MPS in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For some years subsequently he recorded for Granz's Pablo Records after the label was founded in 1973.^{[citation needed]} In the 1990s and 2000s he recorded several albums accompanied by a combo for Telarc.

In the 1980s he played successfully in a duo with pianist Herbie Hancock. In the late 1980s and 1990s, after the stroke, Peterson made performances and recordings with his protégé Benny Green.

Composer and teacher[link]

Peterson wrote pieces for piano, for trio, for quartet and for big band. He also wrote several songs, and made recordings as a singer. Probably his best-known compositions are "Canadiana Suite" and "Hymn to Freedom," the latter composed in the 1960s and inspired by the U.S. civil rights movement.

Peterson taught piano and improvisation in Canada, mainly in Toronto. With associates, he started and headed the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto for five years during the 1960s, but it closed because concert touring called him and his associates away, and it did not have government funding.^[16] Later, he mentored the York University jazz program and was the Chancellor of the entire university for several years in the early 1990s. He also published his original jazz piano etudes for practice. However, he asked his students to study the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Goldberg Variations, and The Art of Fugue, considering these piano pieces essential for every serious pianist. Pianists Benny Green and Oliver Jones were among his students.^[17]

Stroke, later years and death[link]

Peterson had arthritis since his youth, and in later years could hardly button his shirt. Never slender, his weight increased to 125 kg (280 lb), hindering his mobility. He had hip replacement surgery in the early 1990s.^[18] Although the surgery was successful, his mobility was still inhibited. Somewhat later, in 1993, Peterson suffered a serious stroke that weakened his left side and sidelined him for two years. Also in 1993 incoming Prime Minister and longtime Peterson fan and friend Jean Chrétien offered Peterson the position of Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, but according to Chrétien he declined, citing the health problems from his recent stroke.^[19]

After the stroke, Peterson recuperated for about two years. He gradually regained mobility and some control of his left hand. However, his virtuosity was never restored to the original level, and his playing after his stroke relied principally on his right hand.^[20] In 1995 he returned to public performances on a limited basis, and also made several live and studio recordings for Telarc. In 1997 he received a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement and an International Jazz Hall of Fame Award, another indication that Peterson continued to be regarded as one of the greatest jazz musicians ever to play. Canadian politician, friend, and amateur pianist Bob Rae contends that "a one-handed Oscar was better than just about anyone with two hands".^[21]

In 2003, Peterson recorded the DVD A Night in Vienna for Verve, with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (NHØP), Ulf Wakenius and Martin Drew. He continued to tour the U.S. and Europe, though maximally one month a year, with a couple of days' rest between concerts to recover his strength. His accompanists consisted of Ulf Wakenius (guitar), NHØP or David Young (bass),^[22] and Alvin Queen (drums), all leaders of their own groups.

Peterson's health declined rapidly in 2007. He had to cancel his performance at the 2007 Toronto Jazz Festival and his attendance at a June 8, 2007 Carnegie Hall all-star performance in his honour, owing to illness. On December 23, 2007, Peterson died of kidney failure at his home in Mississauga, Ontario.^[23][24] He left seven children, his fourth wife Kelly, and their daughter, Celine (born 1991).