Duke Ellington once called Oscar Peterson the "maharajah of the piano." Drawn from extensive interviews, this enlightening biography delves deeply into Peterson's extraordinary career to offer a profound and engaging portrait of a living musical legend. It is also a well-informed and provocative exploration of Peterson's music, a revolutionary fusion of swing and bop styles that overhauled jazz as we know it.

Lees looks carefully at Peterson's childhood and what it meant to be black and talented in Montreal in the 1940s, his three marriages and six children, his musical partners (Ray Brown, Herb Ellis, and Ed Thigpen), his musical friends and colleagues (Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, and Lester Young, to name a few), and the critical controversy and mythology that have long surrounded Peterson.

The comprehensive new chapter covers Peterson's appointment as Chancellor of York University; his receipt of ten honorary doctorates and the Order of Canada; his stroke and partial recovery therefrom; the origins and fallout of his cancelled North American tour; and much more.

Written with anecdotal exuberance that recalls the best jazz improvisation, Oscar Peterson: The Will to Swing is must-reading for lovers of jazz, of course, but also for all those interested in the life and career of an exemplary artist.

GENE LEES is editor of the renowned Jazzletter, former editor of Down Beat, and author of over a dozen books, including Waiting for Dizzy and Cats of Any Color. Lees has received three ASAP-Deems Taylor Awards.

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