Oliver Jones, a Canadian music icon whose illustrious career spanned nearly nine decades and helped cement Montreal's international reputation as a jazz mecca, has died.

He was 91.

A child prodigy, Jones performed at his first concert at the age of five — among the first in an endless list of milestones for the pianist and composer.

Jones was synonymous with Montreal's Jazz Festival, performing at the world renowned event every year between 1981 and 1999.

On May 18, 2023, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

"I kept on pinching myself saying I'm going to wake up and realize it's just a dream," An 88-year-old Jones told CBC Montreal Daybreak host Sean Henry days after his induction.

"It just reminded me that, yes, I am still here, and people still remembered me."

WATCH \| Oliver Jones speaks with CBC Daybreak Montreal host Sean Henry:

Oliver Jones reflects on a life of accomplishment and change after his Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction

CBC's Sean Henry paid a visit to Oliver Jones after the legendary 88-year-old Montreal pianist and composer received the latest in a long list of accolades during a career that has spanned nine decades.

The Montreal-born Jones won two Juno Awards — in 1986 and 2009 — several Félix awards and received six honourary doctorates.

In 1990, he won the Montreal Jazz Festival's Oscar Peterson award, named after his fellow jazz legend and his lifelong idol.

Jones was appointed an officer to the Order of Canada in 1993, a knight for the Ordre national de Québec in 1994 and a commander for the Order of Montreal in 1996.

A mural honouring Jones, seen in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood in Montreal on Monday, February 15, 2021, was unveiled in September 2014. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)

Growing up in Little Burgundy around jazz royalty

Jones was born in Montreal on Sept. 11, 1934 to parents from Barbados and raised in the Little Burgundy neighbourhood.

Jones has told the story countless times, but not enough to make it any easier to fathom: his mother tying her rambunctious toddler to a chair in front of the piano so she could carry on with her house chores.

He was only two years old.

"And some time within the next year, my sister said that I was actually playing something that I heard on the radio," Jones recalled in a 2024 interview with Q to mark his 90th birthday.

This postcard shows the interior of Rockhead's Paradise, where Oliver Jones performed as a teenager and young adult. (The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec)

Jones's first concert, when he was five, was at Union United Church — a 119-year-old Black congregation near his family home.

Growing up in Little Burgundy, which was known for years as the Harlem of the North, Jones rubbed shoulders with jazz royalty. During the 1940s, when he was still a child, Jones performed at a venue called Café St-Michel.

He later became a fixture at Rockhead's Paradise, a Black-owned club near the current intersection de la Montagne Street and St. Antoine Street West.

Jazz pianist Oliver Jones is shown in Toronto on Monday May 5, 2008, a day before the release of his 12th album, Second Time Around. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

Jones fine-tuned his skills under the tutelage of Daisy Peterson Sweeney, Oscar Peterson's older sister.

The Petersons lived about 12 doors down from the Jones family home.

"My parents didn't push me. They were happy that I played but they would have rather I play just classical or music from the church," Jones told CBC in 2016.

"Without Oscar Peterson, I don't think I would have had the inspiration to keep playing just jazz."

Daisy Peterson Sweeney is pictured here with Jones. Jones has repeatedly credited her with introducing him to the world of classical music. She passed away in 2017 when she was 97 years old. (Radio-Canada)

From jazz to calypso, back to jazz — his true love

Jones continued playing in Montreal until his late 20s, when he met Jamaican calypso singer Kenny Hamilton. Jones wound up working 16 years, between 1964 and 1980, as Hamilton's orchestra director while based in Puerto Rico.

Upon returning to Montreal, Jones got re-acquainted with jazz, undeterred by the fact he spent well over a decade away from his true musical love.

"I didn't have the chance to play jazz," Jones said in an interview after his return to Canada. "But I was always listening."

Oliver Jones is seen here performing in the studio for CBC's The Q in 2016, the same year he organized a retirement concert in Barbados, his parents' home country. (Cathy Irving/CBC)

In a 30-year partnership with the label Justin Time Records, Jones released more than 20 albums.

His work ethic was relentless. Many years, he performed between 115 and 130 shows across more than 300,000 kilometres travelled.

Jones played in countries like New Zealand, Japan and China. His late-1980s Nigerian tour was the subject of a National Film Board of Canada documentary, Oliver Jones in Africa.

'Home is always special'

Regardless of where his journey brought him, Jones's reflections about his legendary career almost always circled back to his roots: His family, Oscar, Daisy, Little Burgundy.

Montreal.

"I may do 100 concerts a year, but playing at home is always special," he told CBC in 2016.

After retiring in 2000, Jones returned in 2004 for one of his most memorable moments: sharing the stage at the Jazz Festival with his mentor, Oscar Peterson.

This undated photo of Jones with former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien, former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, is one of many that were on display in his home during his 2023 interview with CBC. (CBC)

It was the festival's 25th anniversary. And for the Little Burgundy neighbours, it was their first and only public performance together.

"It was the warmest feeling I've ever had," Jones told CBC in 2023. "To play with my idol and, more importantly, my friend."

Oscar Peterson died in 2007. He was 82. His sister Daisy died in 2017. She was 97.

Jones's last performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival came in 2024, following a show celebrating what was his upcoming 90th birthday.

He performed Hymn to Freedom, one of Peterson's most famous compositions.

Jones is seen here playing the piano during an interview with Radio-Canada in 2024. (Mathieu Catafard/Radio-Canada)

'Those boys did alright'

Two months later, sitting next to the piano at home during his interview with Q, Jones took a few minutes to show he could still play classical music.

"What's the secret to being 90," said Q host Tom Power, "and still being able to play like that?"

Jones replied: "The piano... It's just a part of me."

He's been glued to the instrument since he was a toddler.

The one inside his childhood home was purchased, Jones said, thanks to a lottery win by his father. Jones would often scream until his father put him on his lap, bringing him closer to the piano.

Years later, Jones recalled with a smile, his father told him: "That's why I didn't become a great pianist."

Oliver Jones also had strong ties to the Negro Community Centre in Little Burgundy. He is seen here in a photo inside the centre in 1994. The building was demolished about 20 years after this photo was taken, in November 2014. (City of Montreal archives)

But Oliver Jones did, with a nearly 80-year career that wowed audiences around the world and, he hoped, made his family, his mentors, his city and neighbourhood proud.

"I always remember being at Oscar's place and we were saying to each other, 'My God, what would our fathers say now?'" he recalled in the 2023 CBC Montreal's Sean Henry.

"They would look down and say, 'Yeah, those boys did alright.'"

WATCH \| Jones and Peterson at Jazz Festival in 2004:VIDEO