Oscar Peterson

[Joey Recker]

Being from a town of 680 folks (the population never changes
   every time a
woman gets pregnant, a man leaves town!), I’ve only had one stressing tuning
situation, but it sticks out in my mind as being one of my proudest.

 

Former President Jimmy Carter is friends with David Osborne (Google him

Vegas Performer) and asked him to come to our small town to play for a local
church.  They rented a Steinway D from a local retailer for the concert.
The concert was to begin at 7pm.  About 6:30 I got a frantic call from
“Jimmy” asking me if I would tune the piano.  I told him that I didn’t work
on Sundays and that I was on my way to my own church.  He told me he was
desperate and would pay whatever price I charged.  I drove over (2 minutes
from home) and the congregation was full.  Mr. Osborne told me that the
movers simply delivered the piano and left, no tuning was provided and that
it was horrible. He also showed me a few notes in which the dampers were
ringing and asked me to try to help with that also.  I had approximately 20
minutes to “do my best”.

 

The piano was way below pitch and sounded as if it hadn’t been tuned in
years!  I decided to tune it “where it was” rather than attempt to pull it
up.  (It was about 15 cents low).  I went through it quickly and cleaned up
the octaves and unisons as quickly as I could
  (all this with much crowd
noise).  While David was being introduced, I finally looked at the offending
dampers he mentioned.  I did a quickie wire bend, looked at David while he
came to the piano, and said “hope that works”, cleaned up my tools and sat
down to listen to the concert (might as well
  I’d already missed my own
church service).

 

At the completion of the concert, David thanked me and explained to the
audience what happened and bragged on my skills.  My business almost doubled
in the 2 months following this incident due to his glowing recommendation.
He told me personally that it was one of the best “rescues” he had ever
seen.   That made it worth everything to me.  (well not everything
  I still
charged Jimmy 3x my tuning rate!).  

 

Not much compared to Keith Jarrett or Chick Corea
  but still proud moment
for this small town boy.

 

Joey

 

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Gregor _
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 12:51 PM
To: Pianotech List
Subject: RE: Oscar Peterson

 

HI Ric,
 
respect! I think I would have got a heart attack if I was to tune with
audience in such a stressing situation. The worst I did was a tuning on a
stage at a village fair and it was an Yamaha CP 80. Many eyes stared at me
and that made me nervous.
 
But you are right: it´s really nice to listen to a concert where you tuned
the piano. I love this job :-)
 
Gregor
 


> Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:48:47 +0100
> From: ricb at pianostemmer.no
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Subject: Oscar Peterson
> 
> 
> Hi Gregor.
> 
> I have two stories to tell that are relevant to your post. I owe Keith 
> Jarrett quite a lot... in an indirect way. On one of is European tours 
> in the early 80's he complained about every single piano on his tour 
> except his last concert... which was my instrument... a nicely restrung 
> Steinway D that Molde International Jazz Festival had just purchased. 
> The Festival folks were of course very nervous before he came on stage 
> for sound check... and it of course put this gigantic feather in my hat 
> when he did his 3.78 second chromatic run from middle C upwards to the 
> top to <<check>> the piano. That was all he needed to approve the thing 
> believe it or not. It held up nicely the whole concert and my position 
> at Molde was sealed for as long as I wanted it... which was up until 
> 1999 when I figured that 18 years service was enough. I could tell the 
> long version of this story.... but suffice to say that I got lucky in 
> several ways that day and that luck had as much to do with the whole 
> affair as anything else.
> 
> The other story was more recently. About 7 years back Chick Corea came 
> to town and accompanying him was a CF III. This was to be tuned by a 
> fellow in Stavanger who had been chosen to follow the thing around 
> Norway for Chicks concert... but for reasons I wont get into the local 
> Yamaha dealer did the tuning. It was to be a live recording concert. 
> The tuning went totally bonkers during the first set and Mr. Corea 
> insisted it be retuned. The fellow who'd done the job had gone home and 
> was 45 minutes away from being able to sit down at the instrument to 
> retune... I was in the audience and the regular tuner at this venue ... 
> so they asked me back stage to talk with Mr. Corea about it. I 
> explained there were 300 people sitting out there and it would be 
> probably difficult to improve the situation much. As it turned out... it 
> was easy to clean up the octaves and unisons significantly... for two 
> reasons. The audience was very cooperative, and piano was really very 
> much out of tune. I was given 20 minutes to do the best I could out of 
> the situation. When Mr Corea came on stage... he spoke up about the 
> life and situation of piano tuners as he had experienced it... and he 
> was very kind to the fellow who'd done the original tuning... too kind 
> really but then that was they way Mr Corea was (and probably still is). 
> I perhaps would have found it embarrassing had I done the original 
> tuning... but as it was not my <<fault>>... I just found the experience 
> "interesting". Never have before or since had to tune with an audience 
> in the hall. Tho I work regularly around lights and sound folks during 
> pre-concert situations. One learns how to work together with these... in 
> the end the audience was not all that different.
> 
> My point is... its all part of the job.. these are the kinds of things 
> among many others both positive and less so that make such work 
> interesting and challenging. And if you are good... you'll do well most 
> of the time if not nearly always. If you are not so good... well you 
> have the opportunity presented to get better in what ever ways you need 
> too. And that can be everything from basic tuning skills to people 
> skills... i.e. dealing with a pianist in a stressing situation. I just 
> have to go back to my original statement... and say it leaves us all in 
> all with enormous amounts to be greatful for. Not the least of these 
> that wonderful feeling of satisfaction when you have done a fine job.... 
> sitting in the audience or back stage listening to a master make the 
> instrument you just tuned for him/her come alive with music. A bit of 
> you is up there on stage.... hopefully providing some of the inspiration 
> for the pianist to cut loose with the best music they can offer.
> 
> Cheers
> RicB
> 
> 
> RicB wrote:> > I think any of us who've had this kind of
> pleasure to work for these > folks has enormous amounts to be
> greatful for.>
> 
> 
> Not all of us! About 20 years ago there was a jazz festival with
> Keith Jarrett in my hometown (Münster, Germany). Unfortunately, I
> missed that concert, but my friends told me this story: after a
> while Keith Jarrett interrupted the concert and claimed that the
> piano was not perfectly in tune. The tuner was still there. Because
> it would had taken too much time for some thousand people to leave
> the hall, they made an anouncement: special request, please keep
> absoluteley quiet for the tuner to touch up the tuning. And that
> worked. This collegue had to tune in front of the audience. Horror!
> And embarrasing too. The piano should not have been in a condition
> that a player has a reason to complain. No idea if the tuning was
> actually so bad. However: poor collegue!
> 
> This year Keith Jarret played in Frankfurt, Germany and one guy in
> the audience had to cough. Jarrett interrupted his playing very
> angry, slammed the piano lid and said: I can wait outside if you
> want to cough. In Madrid he affronted the audience because someone
> took photos.
> 
> On the other hand: at the legendary Köln Concerts (1974) he played
> on a worn out piano with a poor tuning. The moving company had the
> job to carry the Bösendorfer Imperial from basement to stage. But
> they mixed up the piano and brought and old and short Bösendorfer to
> stage, which usually was used for choir practicing only. The
> organizer convinced him to play on that piano and he really did. And
> said: I do that only for you (the organizer was a 18 years old
> girl). After half an our the tuner had to touch up the tuning live
> on stage.
> 
> Gregor
> 



  _____  

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