Improvisations
10-5-2013 – Chinatown Gate – Piano #30
A souvenir of the street piano project! There were some pieces/songs that seemed to be favorites for many of the people who sat down to play these pianos, and “Doe, a deer” was one of them! Others I can remember were definitely “Piano Man” by Billy Joel, “Fur Elise” by Beethoven, and, of course, “Heart and Soul.”
10-5-2013 – South Station – Piano #29 – Part 2
10-5-2013 – South Station – Piano #29
There were two pianos set up here, but I only played the taller one in the foreground. The lady in green had been there all day, and she was asking visitors to sign a petition to keep the pianos. I signed it, though I didn’t know what the plan was for them when they were to be removed. I know this was a public art project, and I realize that the pianos would not have stayed in good condition (and of course, for some of them, their condition wasn’t very good to begin with!) if they had been left out much longer, but I wonder….What has become of them?
10-7-2013 – Cambridge Common – Piano #31
I know I already posted audio from this piano, but I went back and found a video from it as well!
10-5-2013 – Norman Leventhal Park – Piano #28
I think there might have been some wedding portraits happening at the other end of this park as I was playing! This piano was unoccupied when I got there, and the park was relatively empty of people in that corner, so I ended up playing for a while. This is just a sample of it…
10-5-2013 – Old State House – Piano #25
When I got to this piano, a street musician was set up across the alley playing guitar with recorded accompaniment. I waited for a while to see if he was going to move on, but so many people just plunked the piano keys as they walked by, while he was playing, that I figured it was probably okay to play, too!
10-5-2013 – Readers Park Boston – Piano #27
See that guy in the green shirt? He had his portable radio going full blast, so I very considerately tried to blend in with the song that was playing! But I didn’t feel like I should play too long…
10-7-2013 – Cambridge Common – Piano 31
This was my third time trying to play this piano! Other times, I either got there too early, or it was covered in plastic and locked because of rain. With this piano, I finished playing all the public pianos north of the river!
10-5-2013 – Government Center – Piano 26
I waited in line behind three other people for this piano, and that was after I wandered around the whole antique car show that was spread out at Government Center! The piano was really tucked in a corner, and because of the acoustics of the place (and the fact that golden oldies were blasting over speakers!), you couldn’t hear it until you got within 30 feet.
Some people, when I mention this project, say that they’ve been through Boston neighborhoods in the past couple weeks, but they have only noticed one or two pianos. I love that most of them are hidden in plain sight, and that sometimes you really have to know to look for them before you can find them!