Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Peter is a mainstay of the city’s jazz community. In late 2010, he released his debut recording, A Boy’s Journey, thanks to a grant from the City of Ottawa. Previously, his compositions and performances at the Montreal and Ottawa International Jazz Festivals have been broadcast by the CBC and Radio-Canada. Since the mid-1990s, the self-taught pianist has led or co-led groups that have included musicians Rob Frayne, John Geggie, Petr Cancura, Nathan Cepelinski, Vince Rimbach, Kenji Omae, Mike Essoudry, Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes. In Ottawa, he has accompanied visiting jazz musicians including Pat LaBarbera, Mike Rud, Andre Leroux, Kelly Jefferson and Johnny Scott. In Montreal during the last half of the 1980s, Peter performed weekly at the first incarnation of the city’s famed Upstairs jazz club. Peter counts such accomplished artists as Steve Amirault, John Stetch, Denzal Sinclaire, Mike Allen, Dave Robbins, Alec Walkington and Ted Warren as friends from his Montreal days. While working toward his Master’s Degree in English at McGill University, Peter led a jazz sextet that won the Lowenbrau Jazz Search in 1986 and represented Quebec at the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s Alcan Jazz Competition in 1987. In the early 1980s, Peter lived and studied in Kingston, Ontario, and was fortunate to perform with Canadian jazz greats Sonny Greenwich, Phil Nimmons and Reg Schwager at their Kingston Jazz Society concerts. While he studied English at Queen’s University, Peter benefited greatly jazz-wise from extracurricular time spent with the great drum teacher Chris McCann. Outside of music, Peter has been a journalist at the Ottawa Citizen since 1990, and has covered the education, crime, city hall, courts and technology beats. He has also reported for the newspaper from Hong Kong, New York, San Franscisco, London, Amsterdam, Hanover and Eastern Slovakia. Now an assistant editor responsible for arts and life coverage, Peter blogs on jazz at www.jazzblog.ca. from www.peterhum.com
