Here we stand at the threshold of a new decade. I personally would like to think that this is a new beginning not only for the calendar year, but most certainly for the musical medium that we call Jazz. From November of 2001, with the sad loss of the great impresario Norman Granz, it appears to me that the Jazz medium continued to take numerous tragic blows (too numerous to mention at this time), all of which tended to weaken the Jazz structure of the world. I, for one, along with other players, felt these blows most decidedly, and I admittedly started to fall into an incurable morass of sadness. It deepened to the point where I seriously considered retiring as a member of the performing Jazz society. This cloud of sadness and sense of loneliness for so many of my friends and colleagues in the medium who had passed away engulfed and depressed me almost to a point of no return. It was primarily with the encouragement, love and insistence of many of my various musical colleagues that I decided to not terminate my musical activities in the medium. Many of my friends and colleagues brought to mind, and insisted that I recognize, the fact that I would only be contributing to the weakening of the Jazz medium if I followed my then inclinations about retirement.

My decision to remain active was heightened first and foremost by two of my quartet members, Niels and Ulf, and was aided and abetted by the release of and response to my autobiography, A Jazz Odyssey. The most pertinent indication that I perhaps was about to make a bad decision was amplified by the reception that I, along with my quartet, received at a recent appearance in the Blue Note club in New York. The enthusiasm, excitement, emotion and gratitude shown by our audiences in the club served to fortify my decision to remain in the Jazz medium. I realized more strongly than ever that this music must prevail, for it is not only the voice of America, or even the western world, but it has also become an emotional catalyst for the many Jazz fans from varied countries. During our engagement at the Blue Note, we welcomed listeners from places as distant as the Georgia region of the Soviet Union, visitors from Japan, China, Europe and even Australia and New Zealand. I feel this speaks for itself, and addresses the question as to whether or not Jazz will survive. Regardless of it having been weakened by other forms of so-called music on the airways, television and many of the money-hungry record companies, somehow Jazz will maintain its creative place in the history of music of our world and time. I feel that in this respect, time alone will prove my belief to be well-founded.



Photo Courtesy of Celine Peterson
©2002 Oscar Peterson

I am devoting this space to a lady whom I have loved for the past fifty-three years. A lady I have lived with, laughed with and shared hurt with. My second daughter, Sharon. She passed away on Monday, October 28, 2002, after a valiant battle with a non-operative kidney.

She is the same lady who expressed how much she missed me as a child during my days of intense touring throughout the world. I loved her then, I love her now and I will always love and miss her.

She has lost her battle for her earthly survival, but has won the right to be with God in Heaven. I am using this space, Sharon, to celebrate our happy years as father and daughter, and I shall never forget you.

You brought a particularly personal brand of happiness to my life, and I thank you for this. May God bless and keep you.


Your loving Dad
©2002 Oscar Peterson