Jazzletter PO Box 240, O)Ai CA 93024-0240

G€rE Lrc Ad Libitwm e" Jazzletter PO Box 240, O)ai CA 93024-0240 of jazz and swing, of Basie and Duke. night-"1 Knights of the London House want this music to connect with that audience and not just other musicians."And again he excoriated the new Swing Part II Groups. The tour was to be called Swing Magic. Almadon Produc- and set an itinerary. The tour was to I remembered the Peterso n albtm Motions turd Emotions, tvith tions printed brochures two days of rehearsal in Ottawa affangements by Claus Ogerman, whose work did not come beginseptember 16, after historic Chateau Laurier hotel ' Then cheap. A large orchestra was assembled in the studio' Oscar urd u p"rfot ance at the Vancouver. San Francisco, tried out the piano, said, "l don't like the box,"and walked it woutd proceed to Toronto, all the performances taking out. leaving all those musicians, who had to be paid under Chicago, ind New York, with An extra performance union contract, sitting there. Hans Georg Bruner-Schwer, who place in historic hotels and ballrooms' New York schedule, with profits was producing the album for his MPS label, was stuck with was eventually added to the fund for the Apollo Theater' the very considerable costs' Fortunately for him, he was able to go to a restoration report on the formation of the to record the orchestra and then overdub Peterson later in N.*.pup".s continued to In The Toronto Star, Germany. But Oscar was capable of such cruel caprices, and tour with almost breathless anticipation' "the event has the musical I remembered it. I also remembered Butch Watanabe saying, Geoff Chapman wrote that talked-about jazz event since "Oscar changes his friends as often as he changes his phone potential to make it the most bebop concert of 1953'" By now nLlmber." Finally, Oscar was once more consulting Norman ihe legendary Massey Hall included James Moody, Stanley Granz,talking to him almost every day. I was always uncom- the personnel for the tour A toll-free forlable about the deceptions and treacheries of Norman Turrentine, Clark Terry, and Marcus Belgrave' ticket sales and widely publicized'It Granz. And so I gave only the most conditional acceptance to line was established for participating in the tour. was 1-888-Oscar 99. three or four meetings at The Citizen story said: "A permanent interactive exhibit of From February on, Oscar held iVlarni Fullerton and Rick photographs and memorabilia including music charts, his his home in Mississauga with - for the tour' On first synthesizer, andconcert posters from Mr' Peterson's Wilkins, by now at work on arangements - a story, quoting Fullerton: career will be mounted in the National Gallery (of Canada) in June 4, the Ottav'a Citizen ran the planes are booked"' On July 1 9, the spring.of 2000. A scaled-down version of the exhibit will "The contracts are done, story on the tour, expressing travel across Canada." the Montreal Gazetteprinted a to include Montreal' In his cover story for Dotvn Beat,p:ublished in September hope that it would be extended Star ran a story saying: "A 1999, John McDonough said that Oscar told him about the On August 19, the Toronto jazzpianist will be perfonned by tour with apparent enthusiasm. Oscar said, "There's a pro- new work by the Canadian chamber orchestra conducted by ducer in Ottawa named Marni Fullerton, and she and her Peterson's quartet plus a was inspired by the Trans- company, Almadon Productions, have suggested various ideas Rick Wilkins. Trail of Dreams coast-to-coast recreati on over the years." This is untrue: he and Fullerton had known Canada T rail, a I 6,000-kiloineter, each other only a few months. trail that opens in 2000." suite. McDonough asked Peterson what audience the tour would Wilkins was to orchestrate the to unfold. But, according to be targeting. "Everybody," Peterson replied. "[ don't mean Plans for the tour continued invisible familiar, Norman Gtanz, that literally. I mean everybody who' s ever turned on the boob Fullerton, Oscar, or his to the deal. Reportedly, he was to tube and heard any ofthose (neo-swing) presentations' I'd like kept adding conditions performance' At one point, his to have all these people come and be confronted with a tnte receive $ZO,OOO for every February 2008 and work representatives told Fullerton that Peterson was having health months of work clearing the musicians U.S. visas problems. On another ocaasion they said he was troubled by permits. Ieg ulcerations. Before long, the tour had an on-again off- The newspapers reported that Michel Legrand would be suite. again status. Fullerton and her husband were frightened: they hired to arrange and conduct the Trail of Dreams were responsible for deposits on the concert locations and Wilkins said, "I think O.P. showed an unconscionable lack airline bills for more than thirty people' Then the tour seemed of consideration for his supporting artists, and because of definitely off. Within days Oscar told them it was on again, that my association with him has come to an end'" and even said he would go to New York to initiate a heavy Several other musicians echoed his sentiments. Jon publicity campaign at a press conference and party at the Hendricks told me that he could not fill in the lost time with Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. other engagements. in The event was scheduled for Monday, August 23, less than In early October, Almadon wentbankrupt and its office two weeks before the tour was to begin. Musicians from the Ottawa was closed. Financially, Fullerton and her husband Harlem School of the Arts planned to perform Happy Birth- were ruined and they were divorced. ,' know"n. dalt 111honor of Oscar's seventy-fourth. Bill Cosby was to It is probable that the full story will never be was soon emcee, and performers set for the tour were to appear. Oscar, however, was apparently unperturbed. He The headlines were immediate, large, and country-wide. aboard the Queen Elizabeth II for the 17'h Annual Floating for "Peterson Tour Cancelled," the Toronto Star said in a three- JazzFestival, sailing out of Miami Europe. 'j! guitarist column head at the top of the Thursday, August 26, enrertain' On Saturday, November 6, Peterson, his Ulf "-'';' - ment section. o'Oscar Peterson's Swing Magic Tour has been Wakenius, Clark Terry and the late singer Shirley Horn to mysteriously called off," the story began. participated in one of the Meet-the-Stars events common "The first sign ofuncertainty came Monday,whenthe jazz such festivals. This gathering was videotaped. 'rrr;" legend didn't show up for aNew York appearance to promote A member of the audience asked about Oscar's physical : the tour, He was supposed to play Cole Porter's grand piano condition. He replies, "I don't think I'll ever be a hundred So I'd need a lit'tle on the temace of the Waldor-Astoria hotei . ' . percent, because I am now seventy-four. "The promoters say one of Peterson's representatives help from above to do that. But I think I was able to sur- called Iate Sunday night to tell them the pianist would be mount the initial attack, and, through the love and under- dedi- unavailable to perfonl on the tour, without explaining why. standing of my wife and my little girl and some very "Peterson's camp says the opposite happened: that the cated friends I was able to face the piano again." promoters called Sunday night and told Peterson they were Clark Terry adds: "Barry Harris called Oscar, and he'd cancelling the tour. Peterson's office said yesterday he is in had a similar problem, and he said,'Now that you've had this good health." problem with your left hand, you're almost asnormal a piano A very good source within the controversy told me that player as the rest ofus. after Fullerton and her husband had agreed to one added Oscar mentions the cancelled tour. He says, "I was very condition after another, Oscar's representatives demanded at busy at the time, and by the time I looked-at my contract, others to be the last minute that he be given complete and absolute control after calling Clark and .Toe Williams and several 'Have you over the documentaty film a request that Don Young, as a on it with me, I called up the promoters, who sald, professional movie-maker, -could not grant. signed it?' And I said, 'No, because it doesn't tell me what going be ..i,. -" Many of the musicians, who had passed up three weeks of seat in the bottom of the boat and what oar am I to -: work to make the tour, were furious. In Canada, the anger was using to row back to Africa."' directed at Oscar, whom they clearly held responsible. Rob The implication of course is that he was being treated like McConnell estimated that he had lost twenty or thirty thou- an African slave. Neverbefore had I known Oscar to play the sand dollars of potential income. One musician, telling me racial card. The analogy is historically silly, of course: that he had planned to make a down-payment on a new house Roman galleys used oars; the slave ships from Africa did with the money from the tour, said he would like to put a not: the captives were stacked in tiers like cord wood. His bomb under Oscar's house. slave treatment included, besides the $70,000 fee per concert, Rick Wilkins said, "I've got twenty thousand dollars worth first-class ground and air transportation and hotel suites or arrangements sitting in my basement, which will never be running to $1,600 a night.

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