The sad truth is I can't really comment on whether I think Oscar Peterson deserves to be up there in the pantheon or not because I am woefully unacquainted with his body of work. I'm thinking that I haven't given his music the time it deserves for the following reasons:

1) He was Canadian. How easy it often it is to take for granted, at least where jazz is concerned, those that are in our own backyard. I'm sure if he was an American I would have at least a half dozen of his CDs in my collection.

2) I might be wrong on this count but I always had the feeling that Oscar was a man who played the standards and was not known for his own inspired jazz creations. Please set me straight if this isn't the case. As such my interest in him, an interpreter as opposed to an innovator, was significantly lessened.

3) Crazily enough Oscar led, what by jazz standards was, a pretty normal, controversy free life. And this actually makes him less appealing in a bizarre sort of way. Not as an individual because I've always enjoyed listening to the man speak but as an artist I feel the need to discover, it does somehow diminish the appeal.

Anyway if anyone has a particular album to recommend I'm ready to have my eyes and ears opened.

By the way Stuart if you're looking for a beautiful song from 2007 that falls right in the Kozelek/Red House Painters wheelhouse check out "Scythian Empires" on Andrew Bird's "Armchair Apocrypha" from last year. I've always been a fan of many of the man's songs but have yet to commit to an album but after hearing this I think it's time. It is available on e-music for those who subscribe.