Oscar Peterson

[Richard Brekne]

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