Far be it from me to rush the good doctor of the 88s, Oscar Peterson, into retirement.
In a story about the master’s 82nd birthday yesterday, I wrote that OP has been forced to cancel a couple of concerts recently and was not performing anymore.
I am delighted, on the advice of his teenaged daughter Celine, to correct the record.
“He’s still performing, he’s just taking a break,” says the younger Peterson. “He’s resting and relaxing,” and plans to perform again in the new year with his superb quartet featuring David Young on bass, Alvin Queen on drums and Ulf Wakenhuis on guitar.
That is the best news jazz fans around the world could hear.
Celine, by the way, got the chance to stand in for her Dad earlier this year when the new Oscar Peterson Theatre was opened in the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. Oscar delivered his thanks via a recorded message at the event, which was presided over by then-Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.
One of the performers was Oscar’s old friend from Montreal, who knows his way around the keyboard a little himself, the much under-appreciated Oliver Jones.
There were a lot of highlights for Celine but none much bigger than walking in to see a life-sized ice sculpture of her Dad in the lobby.
“One man did that all by himself,” an obviously-impressed Celine said. “I was ready to bow at his feet.
“That was the first thing I saw when I walked into the room,” she said. The hands of the sculpture were posed up in the air as if Peterson was just about to pounce on the keyboards. “The fingertips were dripping,” laughed Celine.
How ironic, because her father is obviously NOT from the cool school of jazz. It’s actually the keyboards that are in danger of melting.
• • •
The fog is starting to lift a little in the mystery riding of Mississauga provincial politics: Mississauga-Brampton South.
You remember poor-old MBS. It was the patchwork riding thrown together from what was left after the electoral boundaries commission carved up the rest of the City based on the requests of municipalities, ratepayer groups, the parties etc.
It’s the Rodney Dangerfield riding.
Despite the fact that there is no Liberal incumbent, the mainline parties are taking their own sweet time getting to their candidates in place.
There was no shortage of prospective candidates willing to meet the criteria for the Liberal nod (female, preferably young and South Asian. In other words, Rudy Dhalla clones) but the party decided, in its wisdom, that an appointment would suit best.
And here she is now.
Have it on good authority that the name of the Liberal candidate, who will be introduced to the party faithful tonight, and likely officially anointed on the weekend, is Amrit Mangat.
Wish there was more to tell, but at the moment there isn’t.
No one seems to know much about Ms. Mangat. But then, why should we start spoiling the mystery of MBS now?