Oscar Peterson famous quotes

04-17-2025

The music field was the first to break down racial barriers, because in order to play together, you have to love the people you are playing with, and if you have any racial inhibitions, you wouldn't be able to do that.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Music #Order #Play
I'm a musician and, just as the critics are hard on me, I'm hard on the critics.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Musician #Critics
It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Important #Sound #Groups
I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Music #Believe #Ideas
Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they're trying to say with jazz. You don't need any prologues, you just play. If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Music #Philosophical #Play
I don't do something because I think it will sell 30 million albums. I couldn't care less. If it sells one, it sells one.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Thinking #Albums #Care
If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.
-- Oscar Peterson

#People
I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Believe #Air #Long
Louie Bellson represents the epitome of musical talent. His ability to cover the whole musical spectrum from an elite percussionist to a very gifted composer and arranger never ceases to amaze me. I consider him one of the musical giants of our age.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Musical #Age #Giants
We're not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Night #Musician #Tunes
Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing. I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea. I have no one style. I play as I feel.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Believe #Play #Ideas
Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Long #Clubs #Jazz
First of all, I swore it was two people playing. When I finally admitted to myself that was one man, I gave up the piano for a month. I figured it was hopeless to practice.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Men #Practice #Two
It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Important #Sound #Groups
I despair about the lack of proper respect shown for the piano. If you want it to sound like a traffic jam, go out in the street and forget the piano. That's not a piano sound.
-- Oscar Peterson

#Piano #Despair #Jam
I am the worlds laziest writer.
-- Oscar Peterson

#World #Jazz

You may also like:

Art Tatum
Jazz Pianist
Ben Webster
Charlie Parker
Saxophonist
Count Basie
Jazz Pianist
Dave Brubeck
Jazz Pianist
Dizzy Gillespie
Bandleader
Duke Ellington
Composer
Ed Thigpen
Drummer
Ella Fitzgerald
Vocalist
Erroll Garner
Jazz Pianist
Herbie Hancock
Jazz Pianist
Joe Pass
Guitarist
John Coltrane
Saxophonist
Louis Armstrong
Trumpeter
Miles Davis
Musician
Milt Jackson
Ray Brown
Bassist
Stan Getz
Saxophonist
Stephane Grappelli
Jazz Violinist
Thelonious Monk
Pianist