Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC CQ OOnt (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist, virtuoso and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, but simply "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, and received numerous other awards and honours. He is considered one of the greatest jazz pianists, and played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. Peterson taught piano and improvisation in Canada, mainly in Toronto. With associates, he started and headed the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto for five years during the 1960s, but it closed because touring called him and his associates away, and it did not have government funding] Later, he mentored the York University jazz program and was the Chancellor of the university for several years in the early 1990s. He published jazz piano etudes for practice. He asked his students to study the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, especially The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Goldberg Variations, and The Art of Fugue, considering these piano pieces essential for every serious pianist. Among his students were pianists Benny Green and Oliver Jones."Georgia on My Mind" is a 1930 song written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell and first recorded that year. It has often been associated with Ray Charles, a native of the U.S. state of Georgia, who recorded it for his 1960 album The Genius Hits the Road. In 1979, the State of Georgia designated it the official state song.It has been asserted that Hoagy Carmichael wrote the song about his sister, Georgia. But Carmichael wrote in his second autobiography Sometimes I Wonder that saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer told him he should write a song about the state of Georgia. He jokingly volunteered the first two words, "Georgia, Georgia...", which Carmichael ended up using while working on the song with his roommate, Stuart Gorrell, who wrote the lyrics. Gorrell's name was absent from the copyright, but Carmichael sent him royalty checks anyway.Carmichael recorded "Georgia on My Mind", with Bix Beiderbecke on cornet, in New York City on September 15, 1930.Ray Charles, a native of Georgia, recorded a version that went to No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hot 100.

Lyrics:

Georgia, Georgia, the whole day through

An' just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind

Georgia, Georgia, a song of you

Comes as sweet and clear as moonlight through the pines

Other arms reach out to me

Other eyes smile tenderly

Still in peaceful dreams I see

The road leads back to you

Georgia, Georgia, no peace I find

Just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind

Georgia, Georgia, no peace I find…