Jazz legend Oscar Peterson dies at 82
from AP/Seattle Times:
TORONTO — Oscar Peterson, whose early talent, speedy fingers and musical genius made him one of the world’s best known jazz pianists, has died. He was 82.
Mr. Peterson died at his home in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga on Sunday, said Oliver Jones, a family friend and jazz musician. The cause of death was kidney failure, said Mississauga’s mayor, Hazel McCallion.
During an illustrious career spanning seven decades, Mr. Peterson played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie.
Composer and French horn player Tom Varner will be performing this Friday, December 21, at Jai Thai, with Phil Sparks on bass and Matt Jorgensen on drums. 
Get a great start to this weekend … go hear live jazz!
Way back when I was a kid growing up in Ponca City, Oklahoma, I played alto saxophone. I first learned to play in elementary school, where a couple days a week, we would be excused from our regular class to go to the cafeteria where the aged and beloved Mr. Hartman gently worked with us on embouchure, time signatures, scales, etc. (I have a vague recollection of playing “Ave Maria” again and again and again.) Unfortunately, the only way to continue instrumental music education past elementary school was to be in the middle, then high school marching band, which in Ponca City was basically an accessory to the football team more than a focused music program. On top of learning songs, we were required to also master new choreography for each and every football game. We would drag out to the field for early morning practices or sometimes after school, when the September sun was a scorcher. On games days, we had to wear itchy, blue wool suits, which were hot, uncomfortable and looked about as attractive as a female police officer’s uniform. The band director was mean, plain and simple. I don’t remember his name. I do recall that he was short and would snap, snarl and froth at the mouth. He would scream at us if we didn’t get the requisite moves down correctly. I could never remember the choreography and not being a multi-tasker, I found playing and marching at the same time to be almost impossible. I was often the target of the angry band director’s wrath. Being young and at that point, unconscious of a musical world beyond Oklahoma, I drew the erroneous conclusion that if I was going to play the alto saxophone, then this was the best I could hope for. I was miserable and gave up playing. There was no one around spinning John Coltrane or Charlie Parker records. “Jazz” was not in the musical vocabulary in Ponca City, Oklahoma in those days. (Er, and probably still isn’t.) I was unaware that playing the saxophone could be fun and that music could be hip.
Trumpeter Thomas Marriott, and Drummers John Bishop and Matt Jorgensen have the perfect way to beat the N.W. winter weather…
Friday, December 7
Saturday, December 8