"Duke Ellington once called Oscar Peterson the "maharajah of the piano." Drawn from extensive interviews, this biography delves deeply into Peterson's extraordinary career to offer a 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."--BOOK JACKET.