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Oscar Peterson: Black + White
Directed by Barry Avrich
Classification N/A; 81 minutes
Available to stream on Crave starting Oct. 22
Critic’s Pick
In 2021, do we really need a documentary to tell us how great Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson was? Maybe – and just why is that? With his elegant bio-doc Oscar Peterson: Black + White, director Barry Avrich discreetly (perhaps too discreetly) sniffs around the question of Peterson’s legacy and whether he truly received the respect he deserved in his lifetime.
On camera, music superstars Billy Joel, Quincy Jones and others proclaim him the greatest. But does Joe Canadian on the street feel the same way? About his Order of Canada in 1984, Peterson said it meant to him that “the country I live in recognizes, to some degree, what I’ve been trying to do.” Considerable attention is devoted to Peterson’s Civil Rights-era anthem Hymn to Freedom. The suggestion is that race is a consideration in the relative cultural standing of jazz in general, and Peterson in particular.
In the interest of consistency across all critics’ reviews, The Globe has eliminated its star-rating system in film and theatre to align with coverage of music, books, visual arts and dance. Instead, works of excellence will be noted with a Critic’s Pick designation across all coverage.
Brad Wheeler