Dorsetmike! Oscar Peterson is a local legend for me. He is famous for answering his door and letting you in to hear him play. And believe me, when he's playing the whole neighbourhood quiets down, and you can hear him down the street. His presence caused real estate values to increase, with waiting lists for housing. You are so sadly right, about his being from the past. His quiet dignity, his vast variety, and his joy at playing requests aren't from the past, but timeless qualities. There was no wake. There was no fanfare of a parade down the street. There was no line of cars with headlights on. We still talk about who was there, coming and going, standing in his mother's house, packed shoulder to shoulder, crying and crying and crying all day and night. They say the contrails from all the jets landing at the airport caused a warm rain to fall. It doesn't always take thunder, to overcast a musical sky.
I had to take a breather here, looking at this thread again. I was going to say something about internal timekeeping, noticing that before I read my McCoy Tyner story. I was redefining my portable office today and was looking at my ticket from that event. And then I saw your mention of Oscar Peterson.
Internal timekeeping is a deceptive phrase. It's like thinking of tire pressure when you can consider the whole atmosphere. You must be sitting when you play. Standing up, you can move up and down with your whole body, to be part of the rhythm, making it easier for your hands to play around the rhythmic flow. Playing in a large dance hall, soca and raggae band was like areas of bopping up and down, some in contrast, sometimes like a wave. Other times it was like a stage of people standing looking around at each other, and that was because the sound man, a mixer as part of the band, was creating a greater sound that wasn't in synch with what your hands were playing. Yeah, I know, that hip-hop D.J. peak of ambient sound, but it overwhelmed the band like another presence over-riding your own sound. Wired and weird. Drastik Measures, the First Place Winners of The Toronto Caribana Parade when the Hinds family first immigrated from Dominique.
