Al Gilbert isn't sure why he kept that five-by-seven inch piece of film: the one he shot shortly after he opened his photography business in Toronto, the one of the young kid, just in from Montreal who couldn't even pay the $2 fee.
The young guy was looking for a job. After he got off the plane at Malton Airport, he jumped into a cab and asked the driver if he knew where he could get his picture taken for a job application. Lucky thing the driver was Gilbert's brother-in-law.
A few years later the young man was on the phone again, looking for the original picture and saying he needed some more publicity shots taken.
"He said 'My name is Oscar Peterson and I'm now playing piano for a living," the 86-year-old Gilbert recalled with a laugh yesterday evening as he sat in the office of Oscar Peterson Public School Principal Caroline Mochrie.
Peterson told the young photographer that he wanted to use him to do lots of his photo shoots in future.
And indeed, he did.
That's Gilbert (above) now 86, beside the first picture he ever took —lo those many years ago —of the man who would become Canada's greatest contribution to the international world of jazz in the image above.
"Anytime I had a new camera, he was my model," says the photographer.
A few moments before he chatted at Peterson Public School's annual "Symphony of Spring" fundraising event, Gilbert had done a truly magnanimous thing.
He had officially donated a collection of 10 iconic images he had taken of Peterson through the years — a collection valued at more than $30,000.
"We're going to have them framed and put all around the school," Principal Mochrie explained, "so that wherever we are in the school, Oscar will be smiling down at us."
Both Gilbert and the late, great pianist who died Dec. 23 of last year at his Mississauga home, are members of the Order of Canada.
They are both perfectionists of the first order, who shared a passion for photography. Peterson was an avid photographer and camera collector and the two shared many long chats about the profession over the years.
In 1968, Gilbert got a call from Hasselblad Cameras in Sweden, offering a chance to compete in an invitation-only photo event with the best in the business around the world. The idea was to take a photo of a famous person from your home country and submit it for use by Hasselblad.
Gilbert — who in Jan. 2007 became the only Canadian ever to be presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Professional Photographers of America — took a photograph of Peterson, naturally.
"According to Hasselblad, it was the finest image taken in all the entries in the world," he says. In the world of black and white photography, there is a "grey scale" that measures the various levels of exposure. Gilbert's photo achieved the rare feat of having every zone on the scale represented in the image. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance that produced that image."
Funny how those miracles occur a little more often when a true professional is being the shutter, or at the keyboard.
In walking around the stage at Peterson Public School to look at the Gilbert prints last night, you saw indelible images of Oscar that are immediately recognizable. One of them was projected as a huge (30 ft. by 24 ft.) backdrop behind the performers last Feb. 14 at the mayor's tribute concert to OP at LAC. It featured the pianist's huge fingers in the foreground.
Then there was the one of Oscar behind the piano bench, with its top up, taken from a distance. It was used as the model for the life-size painting that of the pianist that now hangs at LAC.
So why did Gilbert choose OP Public School to house his extraordinary collection?
"Because the school is named in his honour," he says simply.
"I can't believe the type of diversity of the children that are here. It's just magnificent that you can have all these children here that can learn together, learn French immersion and learn to play music and learn all these instruments and, most importantly, to live together in harmony," says Gilbert.