TORONTO - There's a good reason 75-year-old Montreal pianist Oliver Jones cherished the chance to release an album with 91-year-old Hank Jones.
"It's not often that I get the opportunity to play with musicians that are older than me," a laughing Oliver Jones told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview.
"It was quite a thrill for me."
Also a thrill? Jones' chance to win a second consecutive Juno Award for traditional jazz album of the year for the resulting collaboration between he and the elder Jones (no relation).
It's Oliver Jones' 10th career Juno nomination, and he's already won two trophies. If he wins this one, he'll want to thank the other Jones -- who won't be present at the show -- and then another legendary jazz pianist whose presence looms over the album: Oscar Peterson.
Peterson, who died in 2007 at age 82, was Jones' mentor, neighbour and friend with a relationship that spanned more than 70 years. And he served as the partial inspiration behind his latest heralded work.
The album features two powerful renditions of Peterson originals ("Blues for Big Scotia" and "Cakewalk") and Jones' warmhearted tribute to Peterson, written shortly after his death, "I Remember OP."
And indeed, there are plenty of memories.
Jones says Peterson lived right around the corner -- "about 15 doors away" -- when they grew up in Montreal's working-class Saint-Henri neighbourhood. Though Peterson was nine years his senior, Jones became familiar with him from the age of five or six. They attended the same church and Jones listened to Peterson's radio show "religiously."
"He was someone that I saw every day of my life as a youngster, growing up," Jones said.
Jones took piano lessons from Peterson's older sister, Daisy Sweeney and acknowledges the "tremendous impact" Peterson had on his musical career. But he says it was not just Peterson's playing style that had an influence.
"I took great pride in knowing Oscar because of what he had done musically, and over the years, when I started to travel and I would announce that I was from Montreal, I finally got to understand that the whole world knew who Oscar Peterson was," Jones said.
"I was so surprised when I started to go to England and Germany and other parts of Europe and I just mentioned Montreal, and people in the audience would come up and ask me had i ever heard of a pianist in Montreal by the name of Oscar Peterson. I was kind of taken aback the first few times. ...
"But it gave me an incentive to see what someone from my neighbourhood had accomplished."
Of course, while music aficionados the world over knew Peterson, they didn't know him the way Jones did.
"Oscar was very, very comical when you got to know him," he said. "But he was a very guarded individual. He wasn't the type of guy you could just come up to and slap on the back and say, 'Hello Oscar, I want to meet you.' He was very guarded in his relationships, but quite a jokester. If you knew him really well, he was very friendly.
"But I considered him probably the most disciplined type of person. He didn't make a lot of mistakes in his life. He knew what he wanted to do as far as becoming the greatest jazz pianist in the world, and he was very, very dedicated. ... He did have hobbies as far as collecting miniature race cars and so forth, and he was also a wonderful photographer. And he wrote poetry, and I'm hoping that his wife will one day publish it, because I know the works are finished.
"But he was a curious individual, and a very intelligent person."
Playing with Hank, meanwhile, also provided a thrill for Jones.
They've known each other for decades. Around eight years ago, they found themselves in New York at the same time and arranged a meeting with the goal of working together, but plans were suddenly put on hold after Hank's brother died.
Oliver Jones, clearly, holds his peer in high regard.
"He's one of those pianists that never plays a wrong note," Jones said. "I think the most important thing I'd have to say about Hank is, you could never tell what age he is, because he has kept up with everything that's been happening musically. Usually when you run into a pianist from our era -- in their 70s and 80s -- you can tell that they're 70 or 80.
"Hank, over the years, has kept up everything new that's gone on. He has a wonderful, beautiful touch. So I'm always thrilled when I get a chance to play with him or to listen to him."
That said, how do the two pianists compare?
"Well, to contrast our playing, I would think that I'm a much more spontaneous type of player, whereas, as I said, everything that Hank plays seems to be figured out," Jones replied.
"He just doesn't play any bad notes. And Oliver Jones plays an awful lot of bad notes."
