Turning 100, Oscar Peterson’s brilliance fills live music and film at VIFF Centre, August 16

As part of VIFF Live series, a performance by all-star jazz ensemble Triology sets up screening of two films powered by music of a Canadian legend

By Brian Lynch

Oscar Peterson.

The VIFF Centre and Legstand present Oscar Peterson Centenary Tribute: Triology Plays Peterson at the VIFF Centre on August 16 at 7:30 pm

WHOLE ERAS OF CANADIAN culture swing through the VIFF Centre’s Oscar Peterson Centenary Tribute, a fascinating evening of music and film copresented by production company Legstand. The occasion is, of course, the hundredth birthday of the late pianist, arguably the greatest musician Canada has ever produced.

There’s no better way of honouring Peterson than with a live performance by top-flight Canadian jazz artists, particularly when they’re working in the trio configuration that fuelled many of his peak moments in the 1950s. And so the program opens with a set by the all-star lineup of Triology, composed of bassist Jodi Proznick, guitarist Bill Coon, and (with perhaps the toughest job on the night) pianist Miles Black.

What follows onscreen will also be filled with Peterson’s gravity-defying virtuosity, while touching on the work of generations of uniquely Canadian talent. First up is the sparkling 1949 short “Begone Dull Care”, in which groundbreaking National Film Board animators Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart attempted a visual representation of the improvising powers of the Montreal-born pianist, then only 24.

Next comes the gripping 1978 heist film The Silent Partner, directed by Vancouver’s Daryl Duke. Set in Toronto and infused with Peterson’s original compositions (performed alongside legends such as Benny Carter, Zoot Sims, and Clark Terry), the drama pays homage to Hitchcock with the tale of a bank teller (Elliott Gould) stalked by a psychotic robber disguised as Santa and played, in the true spirit of ’70s grit and decline, by revered Canuck leading man Christopher Plummer, once the debonair von Trapp patriarch in The Sound of Music. You’ll also spot a young John Candy, on his own way to fame.

Just a day after Peterson’s hundredth, each turn in the evening will bring new appreciation of his towering skills, which once led no less a figure than Louis Armstrong to dub him “the man with four hands”.

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