By Canadian Press

Montreal to name downtown plaza for jazz great Oscar Peterson

Aug 31, 2021 | 1:05 PM

MONTREAL — Following years of public calls to honour one of the most important musicians to come from Montreal, the city announced on Tuesday it will name a downtown plaza after the late jazz legend Oscar Peterson.

The large public square will be created during the reconstruction of McGill Street, Mayor Valérie Plante said, adding that the plaza will include signs and other art installations celebrating Peterson’s life and work.

“For more than 60 years, Oscar Peterson played around the world, he was an inspiration to generations of Montreal musicians,” Plante told reporters. “Although he achieved worldwide fame, Oscar Peterson remained very attached to Montreal and composed many pieces about his home city, including ‘Place St. Henri,’ which is one of his classics.”

Peterson’s widow, Kelly Peterson, said the tribute was “overwhelming.”

“Being here in person and seeing this area that will be developed and named for Oscar is actually overwhelming for me,” she told reporters. “He would have been extremely humbled and overwhelmed and very grateful.” 

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There have been numerous calls in Montreal for greater public commemoration of the eight-time Grammy winner, who was born in the city in 1925. 

In 2020, an unsuccessful petition to rename the Lionel-Groulx metro station after Peterson, who grew up in the nearby Little Burgundy neighbourhood, garnered more than 25,000 signatures. 

Naveed Hussain, the creator of that petition, said he was pleased with the decision to name the new plaza after Peterson.

“It’s a huge win,” Hussain said in an interview. “I think having this in the heart of the city, where the hustle and bustle is alive, and there’s so many connections to Oscar Peterson, it just makes sense. I’m really, really happy with it.

“It took a lot of voices, it took a community, it took debate to get to this point, but the decision, I think, is great.”

While many of Montreal’s jazz clubs were located in Little Burgundy, Peterson began a residency in 1947 at the Alberta Lounge, in the city’s downtown, which helped him achieve international fame.

Work on the square is expected to start in 2023, after a light rail station in the area is completed. Plante said she hopes it will be finished in time for the 100th anniversary of Peterson’s birth. 

Peterson died in 2007 in Mississauga, Ont., after a 60-year career as a jazz pianist. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2021.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press