Oscar Peterson: His Musical Legend and Best Recordings

Anybody who's studied or played elements of jazz or classical on the piano as I have likely have enough Oscar Peterson recordings on their CD rack to send any other piano CD's you own off to be auctioned on eBay or into a storage box in the garage. When Peterson passed away almost symbolically the day before Christmas Eve of 2007 at the age of 82--he reminded people that not only was he probably the best-known worldwide jazz ambassador of the last forty years (filling Louis Armstrong's shoes who was THE jazz ambassador to the world before that)--but also left behind a massive discography that would take you several lifetimes to purchase in its entirety. Even though some carped at his showy Art Tatum-inspired technique--I'm going to easily prove here that Peterson was not merely a show-off pianist as those same people tried to insinuate at one time. The man had his own multi-dimensional and distinctive style that actually may have exceeded any pianist--even Tatum himself. He also had his own compositional and harmonic sound that's been neglected in study and should be studied carefully by anybody wanting to take their learning of jazz or classical piano to a higher level.