Chas, in about 1983, Oscar came thru and played at the Singletary Arts Center at the University Of Kentucky. I took off that night. We were supplying sound and I really wanted to see that Bosendorfer he played, and loved the stories Ray Brown and Herb Ellis told me about their Oscar Peterson Trio days. Oscar laughed when I recalled some stories of my association with some of the Steve Allen band members; all acquaintences.


The afternoon of the concert, I was doing a studio session with a flaky little piano player nemed Bruce Martin (actually, he's one of the best in the area). He kept asking how long we would be because he needed to go see Oacar...kept asking where he was staying, etc.

That night, I got to the venue about 45 minutes early to check out the equipment. There was Bruce sitting on the end of the stage talking to Oscar. He introduced us. Turned out that Bruce had been his understudy in Canada, traveled with him and was his piano tuner for three or four years (Bruce forgot to mention that little fact in the afternoon).

I believe this was after his first stroke, but he still sounded fabulous. And, he let me play about three minutes on the Bosendorfer. The company moved one to every venue he played at the time.

Really nice, private guy, with a great smile and attitude. A monster piano...a monster player and a real part of jazz history.

It was an honor to have met him. And Bruce is carrying on the Peterson/Evans tradition.

Oscar would be proud!


Russ



[This message has been edited by captain Russ (edited 08-07-2009).]