David Dalle
Thursday December 31st, 2015 with David Dalle
Oscar, With Love, and a look at my 2015 favourites

The end of another year, and before we start delving into all the wonderful music which will be composed, performed, imagined, discovered, and recorded in 2016 I will look back at some of my favourite recordings of 2015. Today we will also focus on one of my recent favourites, a lovingly produced 3-CD tribute to the Canadian giant of jazz piano, Oscar Peterson. "Oscar, With Love" was the idea of Oscar Peterson's widow Kelly Peterson born in 2012 when the head piano technician for Bosendorfer was visiting from Vienna and checking Oscar's treasured Bosendorfer Imperial Grand he declared the piano was in wonderful shape but needed to be played. This comment along with the fact that she had many compositions by Oscar which had never been recorded inspired this project. She invited 16 of the world's most talented jazz pianists who had a personal connection with Oscar to come to her home and record this music on Oscar's Bosendorfer. The result is 3 albums of mostly solo piano brimming with love and joy and many premieres of Oscar Peterson's music. Just wonderful! The pianists are: Monty Alexander, Lance Anderson, Kenny Barron, Robi Botos, Bill Charlap, Gerald Clayton, Chick Corea, Benny Green, Hiromi, Oliver Jones, Justin Kauflin, Michel Legrand, Ramsey Lewis, Audrey Morris, Makoto Ozone, and Renee Rosnes. We will also hear some of my other 2015 favourites, the list includes (in no particular order): -BKO Quintet "Bamako Today" Buda -Derek Charke/Tanya Tagaq, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Kronos Quartet "Tundra Songs" Canadian Music Centre -Christos Hatzis/Tanya Tagaq, Steve Wood, The Northern Cree Singers, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Tadeusz Biernacki "Going Home Star" Canadian Music Centre -Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Segal "Musique du Nuit" Six Degrees -Vijay Iyer Trio "Break Stuff" ECM -Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba "Ba Power" Glitterbeat Records -Ludovico Einaudi "Taranta Project" Ponderosa -Dildar Hussain Khan & Party "Sur Sangeet" Kanaga System Krush Records -Snarky Puppy & Metropole Orkest "Sylva" Impulse! -Fatoumata Diawara & Roberto Fonesca "At Home - Live in Marciac" Jazz Village -W.A. Mozart/Marc-André Hamelin "Piano Sonatas" Hyperion -Mohamed Abozekry & Heejaz Extended "Ring Road" Jazz Village -Thomas Mapfumo "Lion Songs" Lion Songs -Anouar Brahem, Francois Couturier, Klaus Gesing, Bjorn Meyer, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Pietro Mianiti "Souvenance" ECM -Various artists "Oscar, With Love" Two Lions -Lubomyr Melnyk "Rivers & Streams" Erased Tapes -Dastan Ensemble with Mahdieh MohammadKhani "A Window" -Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados/Melani Mestre, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins "The Romantic Piano Concerto vol. 65" Hyperion