Oliver Jones

This Heritage Minute follows Canada’s most honoured jazz musicians from his humble beginnings in the Black neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montréal to his rise to fame.

Oliver Jones, one of Canada's foremost jazz pianists, tours Nigeria with his bassist and drummer, discovering in Africa the roots of much of today's music. Hearing and absorbing the musical sources of blues, spirituals, calypso rhythms and more, he reflects that for a Black jazz artist, a trip to Africa is a voyage home.

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Shot in 1987 at the Montréal International Jazz Festival, this documentary film presents musical performances and conversations between three jazz pianists with remarkably different styles: Soviet Leonid Chizhik, Black Montrealer Oliver Jones, and French-Canadian Jean Beaudet. It introduces viewers to the diversity of interpretation within today's jazz world, explores the roots of modern jazz and the specific formative influences on the musicians profiled, and reaches for a definition of twentieth-century jazz.

He has mastered all styles of music, but Oliver Jones has truly blossomed by performing and composing jazz. Inspired as a child by his neighborhood neighbor, Oscar Peterson, the humble and luminous artist has proven that hard work and patience can lead to a long and successful career.