A biography for Oscar Petersonhasn’t been written yet.
“It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo.”
“I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.”
“If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.”
“I play as I feel.”
“Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing.”
“I don't do something because I think it will sell 30 million albums. I couldn't care less. If it sells one, it sells one.”
“We're not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour.”
“Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they're trying to say with jazz. You don't need any prologues, you just play.”
“I am the worlds laziest writer.”
“You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz.”
“The music field was the first to break down racial barriers, because in order to play together, you have to love the people you are playing with, and if you have any racial inhibitions, you wouldn't be able to do that.”
“I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea.”
“I have no one style.”