TORONTO-

Oscar Peterson’s youngest daughter remembers the “laughter and joy” when her late father spent time with music giant Quincy Jones.

Celine Peterson says one of her strongest childhood memories is watching the two music legends at a reception after her father performed at the Hollywood Bowl more than 20 years ago.

Peterson is among many Canadians speaking out about the global impact of the multifaceted Jones, who died Sunday after a stunning career that shaped much of the entertainment industry.

Montreal jazz singer Nikki Yanofsky, whom Jones mentored early in her career, said in a statement that her “wisdom, warmth and kindness” changed her life, while musician Andrew Craig, who led a musical tribute to Jones in Toronto in 2001, also remembered as down-to-earth and kind.

Lou Robinson, better known as King Lou of Dream Warriors, says Jones remained a friend long after the hip-hop group scored a hit with “My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style,” which sampled the Jones’ 1962 instrumental, “Soul Bossa Nova”. “

Tributes to the creative genius are pouring in from around the world, including Canada, where friends described a man who felt like family despite his public persona as a titan of industry.

“When Dad passed away, Quincy was one of the first people who made it clear that he wanted to come to Toronto to celebrate him at his public memorial service, which he did,” Peterson said Monday.

“He had a lot to share about his friendship with Dad over the years. A lot of things about that time period were unclear, but it was very, very clear to me how important they were to each other. “

When Jones traveled to Canada to attend an event or promote a project, his friend Michael Williams knew to prepare for a long night. The former MuchMusic VJ says he never got home before 7 a.m. whenever Jones was in town, with dinners and conversations lasting into the wee hours.

Williams said Jones “became an honored friend” after Canadian composer and producer David Foster introduced them at the Juno Awards one year, and eventually worked as a local media manager and fixer – even cooking house to be hand delivered to Jones’ hotel. bedroom.

“He wanted food for the soul,” Williams recalled of one visit.

“If you’re black and you’re out of your environment in another country, you want to know: Where can I get a haircut? Where can I get food? And what happens? And where is it safe to be?”

He once asked Jones who he would like to meet.

“Well, he says, ‘I want to meet the Dream Warriors, because they made me a lot of money, you know,'” Williams said.

Robinson said Jones was an immediate fan of “My Definition” when they asked him for permission to use the sample, recognizing it “as a turning point and a merging of the generation gap between jazz and hip-hop “. Robinson wasn’t setting out to achieve such lofty aspirations, but he soon found that the song’s success broadened the group’s reach to new audiences.

Robinson said he usually meets Jones at his hotel when he comes to town, and they talk about anything and everything: food, climate change, race and more. Although he learned life lessons from these discussions, Jones was never seen as the elder imparting instruction.

“It becomes a sharing exchange…It’s like spending time with family,” Robinson said. “But if you were a fly on the wall, you would hear a lot of information that you could take with you.”

Toronto jazz pianist Robi Botos credited Jones with teaching him how to navigate an evolving music industry at a key point in his burgeoning career, noting that Jones’ versatility inspired him to go beyond his experience in jazz.

“I grew up dreaming of making music for music and film too. I had other things in mind, but it’s very easy to get stuck in one box in the music industry,” said said Botos, jazz artist in residence at the Royal Conservatoire of Music, said Tuesday.

“It’s hard to stand up for who you are when you know you might not belong. Those were really important things for me to think about.”

The two met in 2004 when Botos won a piano competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The prize came with the opportunity to open for Peterson, facilitated by Jones, and from there they would cross paths several times.

“It’s an amazing thing when a young artist gets support from someone like that. I mean, he was literally behind everything that made me grow in terms of music.”

Craig recalls meeting Jones in 2001 when he led a musical tribute that served as a retrospective of Jones’ entire career to date, and again in 2008 when they both attended a tribute to virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson.

“The times I spent with Quincy were some of the times in my life when I felt most alive,” Craig said.

“Being in a space with him, you could sense what set him apart from other beings. It wasn’t that he had a huge, magnanimous ego. He knew who he was, he knew what he had accomplished in life but he maintained his humility through it all. But he had a life force that was unlike any other I have known.

Craig said it’s hard to overstate Jones’ far-reaching impact.

“I don’t think it’s possible to find a single musician in Canada who wouldn’t speak highly of the music that Quincy got their hands on and how it influenced their development,” he said. he declared.

“Quincy showed us what was possible in a way that almost no one else did.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published November 5, 2024.