‘Exceptional musician, a gentle soul’: jazz pianist Oliver Jones dead at 91

The family asked for privacy as they grieve.

Lagacé played alongside Jones for 12 years, from the time Jones came out of retirement until their final concert in 2017 in Barbados. Lagacé described the jazz legend as a kind of father figure.

He said they developed a close relationship over the years, both on stage and off.

“I knew him by heart. When we were playing, I was there for him, to make him shine, and he was there for me. We supported one another,” he recalled.

Jim West met Jones in 1982, in a jazz club in Montreal. Amazed by the pianist’s skill, West founded his label, Justin Time Records, to publish a recording of Jones’s music. West remained Jones’s producer and friend for the decades that followed.

In remembering Jones, West highlights not only his talent, but also his care for others.

“After a show, Oliver would … spend hours outside talking to everybody that was at the show,” he recalled.

West saw Jones for the last time just a few days ago, in the hospital.

“It’s very difficult because he was a special human being. I can’t emphasize that enough. He was so special and so kind and just always thinking of somebody else, never of himself,” he said, his voice choked up.

Jones rose to stardom from the same impoverished Montreal neighbourhood as friend and mentor Oscar Peterson, studying piano as a child under Peterson’s sister Daisy and beginning his performing career at age five.

Rooted in a classical education, Jones went on to a forge a more than seven-decade career that spanned nearly all genres and included recordings with such international luminaries as Peterson, Clark Terry, Ray Brown, Ed Thigpen, Herb Ellis and Red Mitchell.

At the height of his career, Jones was generous with his support for up-and-coming artists, notably becoming one of the first jazz professionals to nurture and encourage a young Diana Krall. His song “Dance Again Diana,” from his 2006 album “One More Time,” is dedicated to her.

“He was dedicated to helping the youth of the city, and the youth of anywhere, actually, and spent a lot of his time making sure the next generation was set up properly,” said West.

Every year since 2019, the Montreal International Jazz Festival awards a young musician from a visible minority the Oliver Jones award, honouring his legacy as a source of musical inspiration.

“His smile, his kindness, and his music have left an enduring mark on our festival, our city, and generations of music lovers,” wrote the festival on Facebook.

Growing up Black in Montreal in the ’40s and ’50s was not easy. Jones often credited Peterson, a neighbourhood phenom who lived 15 blocks away from his childhood home, with inspiring him to become an accomplished jazz pianist himself. Pursuing dreams like these promised an exciting future far from the hardships of their parents, he said.

“A whole three generations prior to ours, the only jobs that we were able to get were that as porters or other menial jobs,” Jones said in a 2008 interview with The Canadian Press.

“It was a very precarious time for us, but we knew that we had to persevere. To have someone as young as Oscar who was determined … was a wonderful example for the rest of us to understand that nothing was going to be given to you for free, you have to go and earn it.”

A child prodigy, Jones began playing in nightclubs at age 10 but never succumbed to the seedier temptations of showbiz life. He said he was proud that he didn’t smoke, drink or do drugs, despite often feeling pressure to do so during his early years in jazz clubs.

“While I was growing up, I remember playing in clubs and people offering me drinks and I would say, ‘Thank you but no thank you, I’ll have a Coke or 7Up.’ And they’d say, ‘Well, you can’t be a jazz musician if you don’t drink,'” he said.

“Or (they’d say) that if you can’t smoke marijuana you’re never going to be a great musician. I think that was a problem for many, many years — it kept jazz in the cellars, in the speakeasys and it’s great pianists like Dave Brubeck and Erroll Garner and Oscar Peterson and that, that have brought it to this level, brought it to the concert hall.”

Although jazz was his main passion, Jones spent some 16 years as an arranger/conductor in the more lucrative pop sphere. With his wife and young son in tow, Jones moved to Puerto Rico in 1964 to work as musical director and pianist for Jamaican singer Kenny Hamilton.

In 1980, Jones returned to Montreal, determined to pursue jazz professionally.

He would turn 50 before being discovered in the jazz world, winning over critics and scoring immediate fans with a phenomenal technique and a hard-swinging style.

Since the mid-’80s, Jones racked up a slew of jazz awards and honorary doctorates, netting the Order of Canada, SOCAN lifetime award and a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement.

“His legacy, it’s traditional jazz played at its finest,” said Lagacé.

In his later years, Jones would split his time between Montreal and Florida, but remained active with an average of 65 concerts a year.

Jones leaves behind a son, Richard. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2026.

Cassandra Szklarski and Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

‘Exceptional musician, a gentle soul’: jazz pianist Oliver Jones dead at 91

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