Oscar Peterson At 78

At 78, pianist Oscar Peterson has personified jazz piano for more than 50 years. “Personifying mainstream jazz piano isn’t, however, the same thing as being the most significant pianist. Earl Hines, Erroll Garner, Tommy Flanagan and Bill Evans are merely a handful of the dozens of stylists who exceed Peterson in creativity and sheer beauty of playing. But Peterson, in his international stardom and through-the-years box office success, far eclipsed nearly all of these other stalwarts.”