Some piano bars I have known

Catching up with pianist Charles Gordon last night in Newcastle's Vermont Hotel where he once had a regular slot providing tasteful jazz influenced standards as a background to the conversations of residents, first daters out to impress with their sophistication or, on rare occasions, actual listeners, brought to mind other piano bars that once could be found in most major towns and cities of the western world.

Dooley Wilson singing and playing As  Time Goes By in the film Casablanca perhaps personified the piano bar creating an unforgettable image.

I never made it to Casablanca (or Hollywood) but I stumbled across the real thing in a back street in Amsterdam - Cab Kaye's Piano Bar. Kaye had been a well known figure in the 1940s and '50s recording with many of the top British jazzmen on the Esquire label before moving to Europe and opening up the bar in Holland.

Around about this time (1980ish) I was in Paris and found a piano bar in Montmartre (see photo). I no longer recall the name of the bar or the pianist but maybe, in later years or even the next day, one of the couple sitting next to the piano said, "We'll always have Paris" before going their separate ways.

Closer to home, I remember hearing an excellent pianist in the Harrogate branch of Betty's Tea Rooms and, in the same town at the Cairn Hotel, another fine player playing some beautiful jazz even though we (Marlene, Liz, Denys and myself) were the only ones who showed any appreciation.

Up the A 19 to Middlesbrough and the Dragonara Hotel. A lady of indeterminate age sat in the corner of the lounge playing, among other standards, Body and Soul. It was an absolute knockout version but for all the attention she was getting from the locals she could have been playing Chopsticks!

Which brings me back to Charles Gordon. As well as the Vermont Hotel he also did stints at The Cherry Tree in Jesmond alternating with other local pianists and guitarists on Sunday lunchtimes.

Many of these venues are now long gone and, in many cases, the musicians and the pianos with them replaced by canned music for the 'canned'. A cheaper option but no replacement for a live performer judging the mood of the room and adjusting his repertoire accordingly.

Does anyone else have piano bar memories? Lance