So Nice, I Had to Do It Twice

Well, there it was...Saturday, 9-7-2013. 

The day started out with me playing at the Ambassador Omaha, a nursing home at 72nd and Seward (not far from Crossroads Mall).

After getting done playing there at just after 11:00 AM and going home after that to grab a bite to eat, I headed back out to Village Pointe to play some more at the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area's busiest shopping center...and hopefully, to meet up with the artist who painted the center's "Play Me, I'm Yours" piano, Lisa Schlotfeld.

I met Lisa when the local arm of Luke Jerram's claim to fame kicked off on 8-23-2013...and I'd been itching ever since to make it up to her for not being able to try out that colorfully-painted Marshall & Wendell upright (from the 1910s) at the 8-25-2013 reception the Omaha Creative Institute and the crew from "PMIY" threw at The Pointe.

Got to the shopping center at 1:28 PM...28 minutes later than I'd hoped. (It was all because I'd started out late in the first place, ran into a traffic jam on West Maple Road, and then, when I finally arrived at Village Pointe, I had trouble finding a parking space. But I found one nevertheless.)

Once I made it to Village Pointe's Center Court, two little boys- Raymond and Rowe (could be Roe or Ro instead)- were showing what they could do on this century-old piano.

Not long after that, I got a chance to follow Rowe and Raymond...and the first thing I did when I got to the piano was take its music rack off.

And I launched into a song William Gray wrote in 1898, "She's More to Be Pitied Than Censured," one of the many treacly, sentimental ballads the 1890s were known for.

That is...I launched into the tune when a family walked over to the piano and heard the music and saw who was coaxing said music out of the 88s.

And so, I cut "Pitied/Censured" short and invited siblings Rebecca,

Kristian,

Josh,

and Andrew

to play.

Had a ball watching the foursome tickle the keys. 

I liked how Andrew was cutting up; in addition, I loved Rebecca's version of "Fur Elise," which she followed up with something old-timey. Rebecca also showed Josh how to play "The Knuckle Song" and, earlier than that, showed Raymond how to do "Heart and Soul." 

Eventually, I ended up trading places and going back to ol' Marshall & Wendell to play "Pitied/Censured" in its entirety. Some other songs ensued- including some rags I'd written during the 1999-2005 period (like "Split Brains," "Ragtime Meadowlark," and "I Wanna Shout")- when a man who actually did make it to the VP reception (and tore it inside out, with the proof on YouTube!) came back to play those keys.

That's right...none other than Jim "The Music Man" Snyder.  

And we ended up spending the next hour or so trading musical sets. (And the crowd ate it up...especially the elder Jim's music!)

Jim Snyder's music included "Move It on Over," "Loving You," and even two Bob Seger numbers: "Katmandu" and that all-time favorite, "Old Time Rock and Roll."

I got the message.

When I got back to ol' Marshall & Wendell, I dusted off a 1956 R&B hit by the El Dorados, "At My Front Door." Then, I followed it up with Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally." I also answered "Loving You" with two of its fellow Elvis Presley tunes: "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" and the one that put him on the map to begin with, "Heartbreak Hotel." 

The whole thing attracted the attention of quite a few passersby...including a woman named Beth, who's a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (The Village Pointe exhibition got Beth to the point where she came away interested in making Lincoln the 37th State's next street-piano city!)

By then, The Jim and Jim Show came to an end...and it spun off into the Jim Plus Somebody Else Show.

With me the only Jim left, I still was hoping Lisa Schlotfeld could still make it to the shopping center so that she could once again hear her contribution in action. 

And just in case Lisa couldn't make the trip back to The Pointe, I knew I had to record myself and get it on YouTube (so that Lisa and others could see it).

And I knew I had to do better than the day before.

That's why I turned to a tune Lisa and others heard me do at Memorial Park at the very beginning of "PMIY," Omaha style: Good ol' "Do Re Mi," from "The Sound of Music." 

Worked out much, much better than my attempt the previous day to serve up "Aida's" most famous piece...that time as if Del Wood, and not Giuseppe Verdi, wrote it.

Speaking of workout...really glad that two young pianists came along to prevent the last segment of a fine, fine afternoon from turning into the Just Jim Show.

Charles came over and turned in something jazzy.

Not long after that, it was Emily's turn...and she came up with something classical.

Well, the clock was getting to the point where it would approach 5:00 PM...and it was time to wrap it up and stick the music rack back on this century-old upright. Time to go home. 

Or was it?

By this time, a Douglas County Post-Gazette reporter named Emily Heinzen strolled by and offered me the chance to get in that particular newspaper.

I got in...and knocked off my version of one of the first R&B hits to find favor with both Black and White audiences, Lloyd Price's 1952 landmark, "Lawdy Miss Claudy."

All in all, despite my not getting the chance to hook back up with Lisa, it was still a great, great outing.

Turned out to be one of the many, many reasons I'll never, ever forget Luke Jerram's most famous contribution coming to the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area. 

Oops!

Well, this morning, as I promised I would, I made it out to Stinson Park at Aksarben Village here in Omaha.

I was fired up, pumped up, ready to play just the second "Play Me, I'm Yours" piano I intended to encounter.

Took a while, but I found Stinson's Kranich & Bach "Mirrapiano," which, according to the latest from http://omahapianos.com, had been redecorated and retuned. 

I arrived at the park at 9:38 AM (Central time).

Tried out the keys to make sure they worked...only to find...only most of the lower-register keys and about one-third of the remaining keys made a sound.

I didn't know Goliath was still very much alive, had moved from Israel to the United States, settled in this country's 43rd largest city (not counting the suburbs...remember?), and had taken up the best-known musical instrument there is.

Well, the Omaha Creative Institute's chief, Susan Thomas, did say that not all ten of the Omaha Metro's "Play Me" pianos were expected to survive the event. 

Still, it would've been nice to do all the things I'd like to do on that K&B "Mirrapiano." One cool thing about Robert Cook's reincarnation of that piano is that, with the chalk provided, you can put your name (if there's room) or your initials on the soundboard.

Well...around 10:08 AM, I arrived at my safety valve: Memorial Park.

Anyway...the Stinson Park experience has led to an important new strategy for me: If I find that any of the next pianos end up like Stinson's did, I'll go back to Memorial Park. And I'll email people to let them know about it.

And another thing about coming to Stinson Park at Aksarben Village: I was able to, for the first time in my life, shoot videos. (I'm lucky they turned out fine, and it won't be long before I get to upload them to YouTube.)

When I come back, I'll let you know what happened when I tried to make the fourth time at Memorial Park a charm, too.

The Artist and the Storyteller and the Audience

Right after attending the 5:00 PM Saturday service at the church I belong to (it's got four others on Sunday as well as a Wednesday mid-month service), I went right back to Omaha's Memorial Park...to participate in a storytelling session conducted by one of the best storytellers around, none other than Rita Paskowitz. 

In fact, I arrived at the park at 6:30 PM...because I thought it foolish to turn around and go home after church, only to have to come back to the park right afterwards. 

When I got back to Memorial Park, a bunch of teenagers- mostly from area high schools like Creighton Prep, Marian, and Mount Michael- brought the park's south stairs back to life with their presence.

The first teenager to greet me was a girl named Liz...and I was floored that she recognized me and called me by my name.

Well...it was cool. 

Eventually, Liz wanted to know if I played the piano.

After I told Liz and her friends "Yes," I went right to the park's H.P. Nelson upright and tried to think of something today's high-school-age students might like.

One of these days, I'm going to up and learn some of Rihanna's, Katy Perry's, Bruno Mars', Maroon 5's, Lady Gaga's, and Nicky Minaj's stuff...among that by other acts. (I really do like some of today's hits...especially Bruno's latest one, "Treasure.")

Right now, the most recent cut I can play (and get away with it) is..."Purple Rain."

So I served up that 1984 Prince monster.

Well...they thought it was cool.  

After that, I dipped into my 1950s-1960s-1970s vault and ragged up as many hits from those three decades as I could do in about a half hour. (And during that half hour, Rita made it to Memorial Park...along with "PMIY's" Sally Reay and Natalie Shaw, the development coordinator for the Omaha Creative Institute.)

One thing I'm trying to take from the "Play Me, I'm Yours" experience is: "You've got to know your audience!" That's why I started out with Prince instead of Scott Joplin...almost 24 hours after launching my Sweatshop Gallery session with a blues rather than a rag. (At Sweatshop, I was playing for people who could've been Liz' older siblings.)  

Speaking of Liz...sometime during the half hour, the other students encouraged her to try out the ol' upright. 

Well, she did.

And it was cool.

Then, at 7:05 PM, it was storytelling time...and we got a chance to hear a classical piece by Lori Elliott-Bartle, the very artist who painted the very H.P. Nelson upright she was playing. (I thought Lori did a nice, nice job at the 88s.)

Rita introduced Lori to the audience, and afterwards, Lori talked about just how she came to turning what had been a plain old 1910s upright into a "Garden Party" piano. 

This set the stage for Rita to encourage those of us in the audience to share our experiences with trying to learn to play the piano...or wanting to learn the ivories, but not getting parental (or any other kind of) support...or in the case of one participant, having to choose playing the piano or playing softball as a teenager.

Some of the storytelling session's participants were in elementary school...and Rita encouraged those who wanted to show their piano skills to do just that. 

As a result, we got to hear from youngsters such as Jack,

Dottie,

and Lorenzo. (Lorenzo's tune even made it to www.youtube.com.)

The next portion of the session saw Rita seek our stories about what it's like to come to Memorial Park, the site of an annual Independence Day concert featuring the rock acts the Katy Perrys and Bruno Marses learned their craft from.

Rita's own story came from one of her experiences as a student at the U of Nebraska at Omaha. This was during a 1970s Vietnam War protest at that very park...and it culminated in the only time Rita came face to face with a gun pointed in her direction.

It was a police officer's gun.

And it WASN'T cool.

A cool experience about a park I set foot in for the first time in my life only because of "Play Me" came from the woman on my left, Hannah...who participated in tai chi sessions at Memorial until recently. 

Hannah talked about how tai chi demands so much discipline that you can't even swat at a fly if it comes your way. You've got to keep your eyes on the prize.

In a word: Perseverance.  

Next, Rita asked each of us for a word that describes "Play Me, I'm Yours." (The word "fun" won out.)

The fun multiplied when Rita had those "pianophobic" adults in the crowd come up in fives...to hit one note apiece...at the same time. (A third quintet got to hit two notes apiece...at the same time.)

Lori went back to the piano to cap off the session by delivering "Maple Leaf Rag."

Thought that was cool. 

Lots more cool stuff took place afterwards, including a succession of pianists trying out ol' H.P. 

One of them was a cyclist who proved that you CAN play "Heart and Soul" by yourself.

Another was a birthday girl, Emily...who one-fingered the intro to "When the Saints Go Marching In." (And that was only because I learned the lesson George taught me that afternoon: "Get someone to actually touch a piano key!")

Lori's hubby John got into the act with a one-handed "Oh Susanna."

A teenage girl knocked out the intro to Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in G Minor," one of the coolest classical pieces ever written. (Well, I like to think so!)

A little girl named Amelia, a grown man named Grady (he and his wife Kathleen brought their German Shepherds with them), and I delivered some ragtime. (But I was the only one of the threesome who didn't tackle "The Entertainer." That's going to be later this fortnight.)

Matter of fact, with his version of "The Entertainer," Grady hit the last note of the night.

 

I came out of Memorial Park with some great memories, some new buddies (well, I like to think so!), and...I'm fired up and ready to go!

Ready to go to Stinson Park, that is.  

And that's way cool.

Rogue!

During this past Friday's kickoff event for the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area's exhibition of the "Play Me, I'm Yours" painted-piano project, local artist Kim Reid Kuhn approached me about playing the keys during an exhibition she and fellow artist Steven Walsh were going to put on that evening at their place of business, Sweatshop Gallery (2727 N. 62nd St., 68104).

Steven and Kim painted up their own old upright (or maybe it was one donated to them).

One thing's for sure: Sweatshop Gallery wasn't on the list of "Play Me" piano sites.

And that's why Omaha Creative Institute executive director Susan Thomas laughingly labeled it a "rogue" piano...one of several on display here in the area while "PMIY" continues (through 9-8-2013).

So...at 7:11 PM (Central time), I came out to the gallery (in Omaha's Benson neighborhood) to play...and I found a really cool 1916 Bush & Gerts upright.

And I stayed and played it for two hours...and on top of that, I had just as much fun that night as I had that morning and early afternoon at Memorial Park.

The people who passed by liked the music (well, most of them did)...and I even received some tip money.

Well, anyway, the music ran the gamut from an early rag called "Tickled to Death" to a blues called "That's All Right" to Prince's "Purple Rain."

Kim, Steven, and Co. liked it so much that they invited me to come back and play on 9-6-2013.

So...look out, Bush & Gerts!  

One Down...and Nine to Go

Well, it's here!

In fact...it arrived two days ahead of schedule. (If you're a regular of YouTube and you've been following the world's street-piano scene, you've probably seen videos of it already.)

I'm talking about the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area serving as the world's 34th metro area to host that international phenomenon, Luke Jerram's "Play Me, I'm Yours."

Yesterday, the ten street pianos set up for the Omaha Metro were installed in as many public places.

And those passersby watching crews from Omaha's Transfer 88 just as quickly got their fingers on those keys once the pianos were anchored into place.

This morning, the Omaha Creative Institute and the "Play Me, I'm Yours" organization got together to host a community event that served as the official kickoff for the local exhibition of "PMIY." This kickoff event took place at Memorial Park, the landmark on the other side of the main campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Lots and lots and lots and lots of work goes into every "Play Me" project...and OCI executive director Susan Thomas thanked a planeload of people, especially her fellow OCI staff members, the "Play Me" crew (represented by Sally Reay, AKA "Sally Street Piano"), the local government officials who okayed the project, those whose financial contributions helped bring the project to America's 58th-ranked metropolitan area, and the artists who decorated the seven older uprights (including the one pictured; it's right there at Memorial Park), two spinets, and the lone studio piano.

And then...the music began. (Oops...I mean it resumed.)  

The first pianists to get a crack at the park's century-old H.P. Nelson upright- during today's community event, that is- were students and instructors from the Omaha Conservatory of Music. (One memorable duet- by Anne Madison and Yulia Kalishnikova, and I hope I've got their names right- made in onto www.youtube.com.)

Omaha City Councilmember Pete Festersen got into the act; he sat down and played a little bit of that Mannheim Steamroller favorite, "Fresh Aire."

Next, five members of the Omaha-based Ballet Nebraska danced around the old upright while one of the accompanists for the troupe played. (Check that out on www.youtube.com, too!)

The good-sized crowd also heard from a local legend, a saloon pianist named Jim Snyder. And his infectious brand of boogie-woogie playing made it onto- you guessed it- www.youtube.com.

I got a chance to go up following Jim. [Nope...my ragtime version of "Do Re Mi" (from "The Sound of Music," not the one from Lee Dorsey) didn't make it to YouTube at this writing. But I still had lots of fun.] 

Basically, after that, Jim, a young pianist named J.D. Mossberg, two teenage girls and their younger brother, and I traded turns at the piano.

Also, I met back up with another local ivory tickler, the California-born Steven Raphael. (I hadn't seen Steven since the early 2000s, about the time he had a show on public-access TV right here in America's 43rd largest city...not counting the suburbs.)

Man, Steven and I had a good, good conversation as we talked about old times and caught up with each other.  

Steven sent me an email last year about pursuing help from the "PMIY" folks rather than setting up a local street-piano exhibition Denver style.

He knew the right route to making Omaha and Bellevue just the second and third sizable Nebraska cities (after Kearney) to put at least one piano out there in a street for passersby to play. 

By the way...in Denver, you can find a dozen spinets and older uprights lining the Mile High City's 16th Street Mall. And they're out there much of the year- a real departure from the way Luke, Sally, and Co. do things.

Still, for us here in Karrin Allyson's and Buddy Miles' birth city, the way Luke, Sally, and Co. do things is better than nothing at all. Way better.

Having a ball during the early going of the Omaha Metro's "Play Me, I'm Yours," and I'm looking forward to coming back to Memorial Park tomorrow morning to not only get some playing in...but also to listen to other pianists of one skill level or another. [And I'll also be back tomorrow night to listen to- and share- stories about each other's musical journeys (and stories about Memorial Park).] 

Here's the rest of my schedule:

8-27-2013: Aksarben Village's Stinson Park, 9:00-11:00 AM
8-31-2013: Bayliss Park, Council Bluffs, IA, 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon
9-1-2013: ConAgra Plaza, 1:00-3:00 PM; Lewis and Clark Landing, 4:00-6:00 PM
9-2-2013: Tree of Life Sculpture, 9:00-11:00 AM; Fontenelle Forest, Bellevue, NE, 1:00-3:00 PM
9-3-2013: Rockbrook Village Shopping Center, 9:00-11:00 AM
9-7-2013: Village Pointe Shopping Center, 1:00-4:00 PM (alternate date: 9-8-2013, 4:00-6:00 PM)
9-8-2013: Florence Park, 1:00-3:00 PM

If you live here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area (or are visiting), check out our "Play Me" street pianos. And if you'd like to learn more about Luke Jerram's claim to fame, just visit www.streetpianos.com. And if you'd like to see what we're doing in the River City and environs, log on to http://omahapianos.com.  

I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for reading this blog!