Canadiana Suite by The Oscar Peterson Trio
Originally published by Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2012
Throwback Thursday came early this week. Also, happy Canada day, to all who partake.
Many people inside and outside of our border don’t know Oscar Peterson is Canadian. There is an abundant history - his roots in Montreal, his well-documented progression as a pianist on CBC Radio broadcasts from the age of 15, and his latter years in Mississauga, Ontario among them. Peterson was not the kind of artist to hang an identity on his nationality, but he was nonetheless a proud and (at a certain time) much celebrated Canuck, receiving the highest honours possible, and even being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in its first year of existence.
In the world of jazz, Oscar Peterson is such a towering figure that he isn’t considered a great Canadian pianist but rather one of the greatest pianists in history from any place. He backed up Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, where he was born doesn’t usually enter into the conversation.
But it does matter where an artist comes from if the artist in question draws inspiration from his surroundings as deeply as Peterson did on his 1964 record Canadiana Suite. A musical love letter to his homeland, the record contains eight original compositions with titles reflecting different parts of Canada.
On his episode of NPR’s “Jazz Profiles", Peterson said that the concept for the record came about when he was bored one day during a tour stop in Chicago:
“I had been messing with Ray [Charles] that day, as usual, and he said to me, ‘Why don’t you go do something productive, why don’t you go write a song or something?’ I went back to my room and the first thing I wrote was ‘Wheatland’, and after I wrote it, I thought it was reminiscent of the placid fields of wheat in Western Canada”
Listening to the music, I do get the sense that Peterson worked to make each song representative of its subject matter. “Wheatland” is both serene and majestic, while the propulsive bebop of “Place St. Henri” reflects the hustle and bustle of the Montreal neighbourhood Peterson grew up in. In the cool 12-bar stride of “Hogtown Blues” I swear I can feel the spirit of the Toronto of half a century ago.
Well before his face ever graced a postage stamp, a young Oscar Peterson took great care to make Canadiana Suite a meaningful tribute to his homeland, and nearly 50 years later it stands as one of his greatest achievements.