Many of the obits mentioned the negative appraisal of Peterson by his most famous critic, Miles Davis, often with the Davis quote, “ Oscar makes me sick because he copies everybody. The great Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson died at 82 on December 24 last year. The similarities are striking: perhaps I subconsciously remembered Williams when working on my own essay.) In 2010 I rediscovered Martin Williams’s appraisal of Oscar Peterson, “Four Pianists: Four Minority Views” reprinted in Jazz Changes. Don’t miss Mark Stryker’s article on Louis Hayes, reprinted in full at the bottom.
