A tale of two pianos

Regular readers of this space might recall I wrote back in February about finally discovering the whereabouts of one of the two pianos that once graced the large studio at CKTB Radio in St. Catharines.  There was back in the day, a full-size concert grand from Steinway & Sons, alongside a smaller but still huge Heintzman grand piano.

In the old days, much of the programming on radio stations was produced live and locally, in studio every day.  That meant studios had to be big enough to hold large groups such as choirs or even small orchestras on occasion.  Many stations had at least one piano and a staff pianist to accompany singers during recitals, or provide musical recitals themselves.  So it was CKTB until the early 60s housed these two massive pianos in an equally massive studio at the front of the building, with one of them played regularly by Clarence Colton, who would play and chat and generally fill the air with an amiable sort of patter you simply never hear on the radio anymore.

I discovered quite by accident earlier this year one of those long-lost pianos resided in a house of an elderly couple in the south end of St. Catharines, and of course I had to investigate.  I contacted the couple and went for a visit on a bright, cold February day.  They bought the smaller of the two pianos, the Heintzman, when the station was renovating the studios back around 1967 if I remember correctly, and at the time it was a mess.  Lots of building materials from the renovations covering it and such; in other words, it was in pretty rough shape.

They bought it, restored it, and now it sits in their living room, painted a nice off white, and it looks simply grand.  They told me at the time they believe this was the piano Clarence Colton played years ago in the studio.  But they also mentioned the fact the piano was badly out of tune, and could I recommend a piano tuner in the area?

Turns out I could, and here is where we pick up the story and bring it to a lovely conclusion.  I had planned to write about this some months ago but life got in the way and of course, I no longer work at CKTB Radio, so the story fell by the wayside.  But I thought now, before I am too far removed from my former employer, I would complete the story of the other missing piano.

The piano tuner I recommended was jazz pianist John Sherwood, who tunes pianos by day and plays jazz on them by night.  I met John years ago when he used to play around town and visit the late, lamented Downtown Fine Music every now and again.

I had his business card so I called him up.  After several missed calls back and forth, we connected back in the spring and I told him the story of the piano in need of tuning, and the fact I was still looking for the larger Steinway & Sons concert grand.  Turns out John knew about the Steinway, and in fact, knew where I could find it.

I was amazed - what luck!  John told me HE owned the missing Steinway, and it resided in his home in north St. Catharines!  In may I made some time on a Saturday afternoon to visit John at his home and finally got a look at the Steinway & Sons piano that sat alongside the Heintzman in the CKTB studios years ago.

John told me he bought the piano from Ridley College, where it must have been moved when it left the CKTB studios back in the 60s.  When he found it, again it was in pretty rough shape, and once he moved it out of Ridley he had to do a full restoration from the ground up.  The end result is nothing short of astounding, as it is quite simply breathtaking.  It is black, huge, and sounds amazing.  It takes up almost one room in his large bungalow.

John also showed me the makings of a home studio he is working on, including a classic Ampex reel-to-reel tape deck like I remember working with at CHFI-FM in Toronto back in the 70s, and a full production-studio quality sound board for mixing musical tracks.  It was still waiting to be set up, but all the pieces were there, it was just up to John to find the time with his busy schedule to finish the job.

But the piano was the reason for the trip and after he gave me an impromptu recital, I took several pictures and off I went, confident I had finally solved the riddle of the missing pianos from the early days of CKTB Radio.

Ah, but there is still one mystery left to solve, although now I likely won't follow up given the fact I no longer work at CKTB anymore, but John seemed to think Clarence Colton used to play the Steinway piano rather than the Heintzman.  Who knows, maybe he played both?  Without investigating further we'll never know, but if you have any input on this or know yourself, drop me a line and let me know.

But for now, the mystery is solved and I can move on to other things...what a fascinating piece of our local broadcasting history in St. Catharines.  And I am proud to say I was a part of that history for 32 wonderful years.

Things change and we move on, but every now and then it is nice to revisit the past and remember something special, and finding those two great pianos qualifies for me as one of those special moments.

Have a great weekend!

November 2nd, 2013.