John Sherwood is respected by his public and his peers as one of the top jazz pianists in Canada today, and now, he demonstrates his incomparable solo keyboard skills in the up-close-and-personal intimacy of The Home Smith Bar every Thursday evening.
The ‘bible’ of the international music scene, “DownBeat Magazine” wrote “Sherwood is firmly of the Oscar Peterson school”, an apt tribute to the talent of the prodigious pianist, who was influenced by Peterson’s genius from earliest childhood. Today John Sherwood has his own profoundly lyrical, boundlessly swinging, brilliantly executed sound, but Oscar Peterson’s lifelong impact is unmistakable.
"I've merely scratched the surface on a few areas of Peterson's work, but those areas dominate my way of thinking about the piano. Always. Even when I'm not playing in that style. The classical background is essential in developing touch, tone and technique. In jazz, it's the rhythm. Once you have that rhythmic concept, the rest falls into place."
