Oscar Peterson On The Roland PianoPlus, TB-303 & TR-606

Image: Neil Vance

If this ain’t techno, I don’t know what is.

Jazz great Oscar Peterson on the Roland PianoPlus, TB-303 & TR-606, from a scan of an old 1982 Roland brochure. This shows you what Roland designed the TB-303 & TR-606 for, back in the day!

No disrespect intended, but have you ever heard of an Oscar Peterson 606/303 PianoPlus synth jam?

8 thoughts on “Oscar Peterson On The Roland PianoPlus, TB-303 & TR-606

  1. Supposedly Peterson was quite the gearhead back in the 80’s. He used to do interviews in Keyboard where they talked at great lengths about the latest synths.

    As far as I know though, he never actually recorded anything played on a synth!

  2. Oscar mentions his work with synths on the NPR Piano Jazz CD, and talks with host Marian McPartland at great length about his playing technique. One of the tracks on the CD is a solo of "Emily". I immediately recognized the tune, because it was similar to a track used as a demo in some keyboard gear that I owned, (either an EMU Proformance +, or GEM ProPiano 2) and perhaps was a demo in the Roland pianos as well. I think it's a moot point that he never recorded with synths, being such a master of the Piano that he was. I wish I could find this demo he played, (it was a beautiful arrangement.)

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