Re: completely off topic

[lstanwyk <lstanwyk@RYERSON.CA>]

Yeah - it's sad to see great artists 'struck down' with illness, and is
especially heart-breaking when it happens in the public eye for all to
see, i.e., Oscar Levant, Nureyev, Martha Graham, et al.  Oscar Peterson
was a very soft-natured, humble man.  My father worked with him alot
during the 70s and 80s - my father has some great Oscar stories of their
days together at the CBC studios.  Once my father accidentally peed on
Oscar's leg in the men's room during one of many recording sessions - a
mutual friend of theirs turned off the bathroom light on them as a
practical joke, and my startled father turned around too quickly, before
he, ahem, finished 'doing his business' lol!  He apologized profusely to
Oscar, but Oscar thought the whole thing was hilarious and was very cool
about it.  The unfortunate thing is, poor Oscar had to do the whole
recording session with a big wet stain on his pant leg!

Cheers!

LS

f h wrote:
>
> Hi gang, this is totally off topic so forgive me.  I
> was watching tv last week (a rarity for me nowadays)
> and CBC TV had a special on Oscar Peterson.  He was
> filmed playing live in Toronto quite recently, as
> there was a big jazz conference in town and he was
> honored and so he played with a small band at Roy
> Thompson Hall.  Well, my jaw dropped open at what I
> saw.  His left hand is entirely crippled and could not
> move.  His right hand was a shadow of what it used to
> be able to do.  This is age and arthritis.  It was the
> saddest thing I'd seen in so long, a very great man
> reduced to a small fraction of what he once was.   I
> could not help but wonder what he was thinking, in
> terms of deciding to perform in public, when he really
> could not.  It was terribly sad.  So, why do I post
> this?  What would of come of Gould, I wondered, if he
> had been really crippled, like Peterson, with a
> debilitating disease?  I cannot imagine Gould
> performing either on recordings or live (!!!) with
> anything less than 100% ability.
>
> Comments?
>
> best regards,
>
> Fred Houpt
> (who thinks the world of our beloved Oscar Peterson)
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
> http://mailplus.yahoo.com