There are few laudatory comments I could offer to adequately convey the depth of gratitude and warmth that I feel toward Oscar Peterson. Oscar Peterson was one of the first jazz pianists (with Art Tatum and Bill Evans) to whom I listened and from whom I studied. I believe that it was the sheer joy evident in Oscar Peterson’s playing that, simply stated, made me happy. The virtuosity and technical excellence of his performance has never ceased to awe and inspire a generation of aspiring jazz students. When Oscar Peterson died on December 23, 2007, I felt a significant personal loss because of what his music and piano playing had meant to me. I had hoped to hear this gentle piano giant perform in person. Alas, it was not to be…
The Etudes and Pieces that are featured here are part of a set of teaching-pieces written by Mr. Peterson. The original music book was titled: “Complete Jazz For The Young Pianist” (Copyright 1965, Charles Hanson, Music and Books). In the “Notes from the Author” preface to the book, Mr. Peterson expresses his hope that the set of pieces would open “a new world of pianistic command to the avid young pianist.” I am not certain of the extent of my pianistic command; but, I am certain that there are few who would (now) call me a “young” pianist. I am also certain that I have been enriched by my 30-plus year association with this set of pieces.
I created the audio, 3D modeling, and video using Synthogy’s Ivory Yamaha Studio 7-ft Grand Piano, MOTU Digital Performer (DP), Google Sketchup, Blender, and iMovie. The over-sized musical notation displayed and featured on-stage with the piano model was created using my actual piano performance exported from Digital Performer’s QuickScribe window. In addition to a no-audio, Picasa Web-Album Slideshow (seen in miniature in this post), I have posted several sizes of the videos and an audio only version.
Apple’s QuickTime or VLC – VideoLan – VLC Media Player may be required to view the file-types required for the H.264 compression used to make the video files small enough for downloading. If you do not have a fast Internet connection, you will wish to audition the Tiny (176 x 144, 6.8 MB) or Small (480 x 360, 83.9 MB) versions of the video or the audio only version rather than the Medium (640 x 480. 133.1 MB) or Large (720 x 540, 243.7 MB) versions. The larger video formats could take a while to begin to play for you. Rather than attempting to play them in your browser, you may have better results by right-clicking on any of the links to the video files above and “Save the Link Target As…” to save the file to your computer’s hard-disk.
I hope that you enjoy this short recital of piano sketches and the original 3D rendered piano-model art that I created to stage and illustrate the performances.
Regards,
Stan Owen, Jr.
Copyright 2009
Creative Minds’ Music
All Rights Reserved
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Great stuff!
Here’s a great story about Oscar. I took the picture of his then current quartet that ended up in his book, “Oscar, A Jazz Journey.” The photo credit was mistakenly given to Oscar’s daughter, Celine Peterson. BUT, I was not to be denied! Turned out that I had taken the shot as the group was standing in front of a mirror backstage in the Green Room of the Ravinia Park in Chicago.
And sure enough, since it was a digital camera and I was holding it down by my chest, you can see my face in the mirror of the picture! HELLarious! There is Karma!
Another great story is the way I met Oscar. He emailed Sweetwater inquiring about a K2600 keyboard and I happen to get the random email. I replied to him, asking him if he was THE Oscar Peterson and he emailed me back, “Well. Kenny, I play piano if that’s what you mean.” Wow!
Kenny
http://thek2bshow.com/thek2bShow/Home_Page.html
http://www.kcbsystems.com/KCBSystems.com/Home_page.html
The animation is superb! The Stanway looks great and you can see the music easily. I like all the different viewpoints, the variety of colors on the floors and backgrounds and the attention to shadow detail is right on!
The different selections from the Big O were well done – at least a couple sounded familiar to me as I have listened to the Big O on numerous occasions. Bravo, Mr. Music Man! Bravo!