Despite stellar jazz career, Oliver Jones defers to late friend Oscar Peterson

By: Cassandra Szklarski, THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - Jazz pianist Oliver Jones has been living under the shadow of the late, great Oscar Peterson for almost all of his life.

From the time he began tickling the ivories in the same impoverished Montreal neighbourhood as Peterson - who lived just 15 doors away - to today, when a good part of Jones's performance schedule is tied up in international tributes to the jazz legend, links between the two have been inescapable.

But despite Jones's own accomplishments in the jazz world, he doesn't seem to mind the association, repeatedly steering talk of his own storied past to memories of hanging out with the Peterson family, watching a teenaged Oscar soar from neighbourhood phenom to international star, and his delight that tributes to Peterson's life and music continue to pour in.

"Oscar had a lot of natural talent, but the majority of it was hard work," enthuses Jones, who took part in several tributes to his late friend earlier this year and says he's looking forward to performing at more scheduled in Switzerland, France, Spain and Scotland.

"He was a very, very strict disciplinarian and (had) a wonderful work ethic and you don't just become the world's greatest jazz pianist by luck," he says of Peterson, who died just before Christmas last year.

Jones credits this work ethic with inspiring him to become an accomplished jazz pianist himself, recalling one moment when he was about 10 years old when Peterson gave him a piano assignment to work on.

"And I remember I came back in and I started to play and he says: 'Oh, you didn't practise that at all, did you?'And I said, "No.' I said I had a track meet or baseball," recalls Jones, who was nine years younger than Peterson.

"And he said, 'Well, you have to decide whether you're going to be an athlete or you want to be a musician.' And from that point on, I knew how just how serious he was about his music."

Jones, too, would become serious about music, although he took a much different route to stardom. He spent some 15 years as an arranger/conductor in the pop sphere, stifling his true jazz leanings for the more lucrative genre until his later years. He would turn 50 before being discovered in the jazz world, winning over critics and scoring immediate fans with a phenomenal technique and a hard-swinging style.

Since the mid-80s, Jones has racked up a slew of jazz awards and honorary doctorates, netting the Order of Canada, SOCAN lifetime award and a Governor General's Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement.

This week, Jones releases his 12th disc, "Second Time Around," a playful reference to a brief retirement from the business that ended with the 2005 disc, "One More Time."

It features a mix of traditional classics - including "Misty," "When I Fall in Love," "Surrey With a Fringe On Top" - and originals written by Jones. Among them are two songs that Jones wrote for each of his band members: "Museric Waltz," for his bass player, Eric Lagace, and "D for Doxas," in honour of his drummer, Jim Doxas.

"I enjoy writing about the people around me," the soft-spoken Jones, 73, explains simply.

His previous disc featured a cut written for jazz siren Diana Krall, whom he will open for when they perform at a tribute to Peterson in Marciac, France in August.

"It's strange because the first time that I met Diana she was opening for me," says Jones, while sipping a ginger ale at a lakeside hotel.

"A few years (back) and I was lucky enough to get her her first agent.... From her first concert that I listened to her I just knew that she has something special."

These days, the youthful Jones spends six months out of the year working out of Montreal, performing some 65 concerts during that time. The remaining six months are spent relaxing in Florida, and playing golf whenever he can. He doesn't smoke or drink, despite often feeling pressure to do so during his early years in jazz clubs.

"I delved deeply into playing golf," he says of his four-year hiatus from performing, noting he rarely touched the piano during that time. "That was my passion, and still is."

Jones heads to his next Peterson tribute later this month in Bern, Switzerland, following that up with appearances at jazz festivals in Montreal and Toronto.

Jones's disc, "Second Time Around," comes out this week.