Jazz Virtuoso Dazzled on Piano

Peterson later taught at other schools, always emphasizing technique so students "can face whatever they come up against."

In the mid-1960s, the Peterson-Brown-Thigpen trio broke apart. Peterson remained the star attraction in later trio incarnations, including one from the 1970s with guitarist Joe Pass and bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen. He won his first Grammy, in 1974, for a recording with Pass and Pederson called "The Trio." Two albums in the early 1990s reuniting Peterson with Ellis and Brown also won Grammys.

Peterson formed a piano duet with Herbie Hancock in the early 1980s but later slimmed down to a solo show, once telling The Washington Post he felt less restricted harmonically when playing alone. "The bass player would always wonder where we are going," he said.

Beyond the piano, Peterson branched out as a singer on a 1965 tribute album to Cole, and reviewers noted he bore a vocal style strikingly similar to Cole's. He also wrote several ambitious pieces of music, including "Canadiana Suite" (1964) and "Africa Suite" (1983). He composed for film and hosted several television shows about jazz, including one for the British Broadcasting Corp. in 1976 called "Oscar Peterson's Piano Party."

Peterson was playing at the Blue Note club in New York when he suffered a stroke in 1993. He underwent a year of physical therapy before launching his career again on the recording and concert circuit.

Pianist Benny Green, a protege who recorded the 1997 duo album "Oscar and Benny," told the Los Angeles Times about his mentor: "Oscar told me that the first thing he does when he sits down at a piano is to gauge the key drop -- how far the keys on an individual instrument need to be depressed before the hammer hits the strings.

"He says -- and he makes it sound so simple -- that once he scopes that out, then he's in complete control of the piano. For the rest of us, of course, there are a lot more steps involved."

Peterson's marriages to Lillie Fraser, Sandra King and Charlotte Huber ended in divorce. Survivors include his fourth wife, Kelly Peterson, and their daughter, Celine. He had six other children from the previous marriages.

Peterson was a towering figure in the literal sense, standing over six feet tall and weighing more than 250 pounds. Ray Brown once spoke of Peterson's "drill sergeant" tendencies, but audience members found him, by and large, a serene and engaging performer -- except when interrupted by loud talk or clinking glasses.

He was known to have barked at one offender, "Would you act this way at a classical concert?"