Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC, CQ, O.Ont. is a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was born on August 15, 1925 in Montreal, Quebec. On 23 December 2007, Peterson died of renal failure at his home in Mississauga, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. He began learning trumpet and piano from his father at the age of five, but by the age of seven, after a bout of tuberculosis, he concentrated on the piano. Some of the artists who influenced Peterson during the early years were Teddy Wilson, Nat "King" Cole, James P. Johnson and the legendary Art Tatum, to whom many have tried to com…
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