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An Oscar Peterson Prank

Apparently, according to bassist Bill Crow, one of Oscar Peterson’s favourite pranks was to fool around with his trio members’ bass and guitar strings before a performance. He would then keep Herb Ellis or Ray Brown busy with conversation right up to the second before they started to play. Of course, Peterson would start the tune and Ellis or Brown would flounder with their strings, trying to figure out what was going on.

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Peterson became so good at it after a while that all he had to do was to pretend to touch the bass or guitar and not do a thing to the strings. Brown and Ellis would be watching and just assume Peterson detuned the instruments. As soon as they got to the bass and guitar, they would tune them higher by themselves. Or for a variation, Peterson would start a song in a higher key and they’d think they were out of tune.

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Listen to the Trio playing Tea For Two.