Gertrude Niesen’s bulldog, Big Boy, was the cause of it all. TRAPPED DRUMMER ALMOST BITES DOG: If the percussion section of Isham Jones Orchestra seemed to miss a beat or two during a recent broadcast of “The Big Show,” don’t think badly of the drummer, please. It’s from a column written by Tim Marks for the Januissue of the Brooklyn Times Union: “Chick,” I said, “You almost had me ruin a perfectly good Steinway grand!” He chuckled, looked at Bela and started playing some obscure beautiful song I had never heard before, and from the look on Bela’s face he had never heard of it either. He played a few chords and said confidently, “Oh, this sounds much better! So sorry, Dan.” Chick had forgotten to change the setting on his implanted hearing aids (which I had no idea he even wore). He pulled out a small remote and began pushing buttons on it. He made a “humph” sort of sound and reached into his pocket. The tech said very calmly, “Chick, the piano sounds great out here in the auditorium.”Ĭhick paused for a moment with a look of puzzlement on his face. Chick very dramatically played a few chords and told the tech he couldn’t play this piano in its current condition. Just then a guy hopped up on stage and put his arm on Chick’s shoulder and asked him what was wrong. I began to sweat as I reached for my tool bag and opened it. At this point I had about 20 minutes before the house doors would open, which was not nearly enough time to do what he was asking of me. And it sounded very much like the other pianos he had played, if not a bit mellower. Now I had been a concert piano technician for about ten years, and I felt quite comfortable with the tone on the piano. What Chick was asking me to do was make a wholesale change to the “tone” of the piano, which he found very offensive. He looked around and said, “Is the piano tuner still in the house?” I reluctantly stepped out of the shadows and said, “Yes, Chick, I’m right here.” In a very animated tone, Chick said, “I need you to take this thing down as low as this establishment will let you! Can you do that?” I said, “Yes, I can.” After playing a couple chords and arpeggios Chick abruptly stopped.
Chick sat down at the piano and began to play. There were about 8 to 12 stage techs milling around including myself standing back in the shadows. I knew this piano well and, while I knew Chick preferred a Yamaha whenever available, I really thought he would be happy with this Steinway.Ĭhick and Bela arrived just 30 minutes before the doors were to open for the concert, to do their sound check. Now keep in mind that I had spent an entire day voicing, regulating and prepping this piano for this concert about a month earlier, and I had serviced this piano numerous times for concerts and events over the years.
An older Steinway D concert grand piano resides there. I got off the plane in the Capital City and headed straight to the auditorium at the Juneau Douglas High School. However, once we landed in Juneau, things changed a little. The concerts in Fairbanks and Anchorage were mostly uneventful, except for the amazing music these two musical icons were producing. As it turned out Anchorage was the only town with his preferred Yamaha concert grand at the performance venue, although I was able to find one at the University of Alaska Fairbanks which we got moved to the performance hall for him. Chick wanted me to travel to each venue to inspect and prepare each piano for his upcoming shows. It appeared Chick and Bela Fleck were coming for an Alaskan Tour of Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau. I received a call in early 2014 from Chick Corea’s usual piano technician.
Dan McElrath is a registered piano technician with Alaska Piano Services.