SUNDAY, OCT. 5, 2014 --- The legendary
Johnny O'Neal plays the Yamaha C-7 piano that dominates The Jazz Room stage and
breaks into a wide, toothy grin.
“This is a great piano,” the 57-year-old
jazz master says.
The club is quiet. There are just a few people around. Johnny has arrived early for the gig. He tries out the piano. He chats with the sound engineer. In less
than an hour O'Neal will give a performance that has some new fans weeping,
others calling for a return engagement and everyone on their feet clapping and
hooting.
Johnny played Art Tatum in the 2004 Ray
Charles biopic -- Ray. Johnny opened for
Oscar Peterson at Carnegie Hall in 1985. In fact, it was Oscar Peterson who
recommended Johnny for the role as Tatum. Simply put, Johnny is one of the
world's best practitioners of mid-20th Century jazz piano technique.
He does not read music, but has a repertoire of 1,500 songs.
Joining Johnny for the gig are Dave Young
on bass and Terry Clarke on drums. The
trio just finished three nights at The Jazz Bistro in Toronto .
It is a wonderful, joyous re-union for the three. In 1984 this trio cut a studio album in Detroit , Johnny's hometown, and a live album at one of the
most famous jazz clubs in North America, Baker's Keyboard Lounge on the edge of
the Motor City . They did not play together again
until O'Neal's gigs in Toronto and Waterloo .
Now, three decades later they give a
performance no one in the club will soon forget. The show instantly became the stuff of Jazz
Room lore.
O'Neal starts the show with “Put on a Happy
Face.” It is a rollicking, foot stomping
performance. Everyone is captivated
before the first song is half done.
“We don't have a planned set, so we don't
know what we are going to play,” Johnny says.
“If you have any requests keep 'em to yourself.”
The rest of the first set: Too Close for
Comfort, One Hundred Years From Today, Tomorrow Night, A Beautiful Friendship,
L'il Darling, Saving All My Love for You, Come Back Baby Blues, My Ship, Smoke
Gets in Your Eyes, She Doesn't know, Deed I Do, Come Sunday, All of My Life and
Please Don't Talk About Me When I am Gone.
In between songs O'Neal lays on charm as
beautiful as the music.
“We are dedicating this to all the lovers
out there, hope you enjoy,” O'Neal says as he introduces Saving All My Love for
You.
Before finishing the first set with Come
Sunday, O'Neal says: “I like this place. I'm going to come here every
night. I thank for you for being in Waterloo at The Jazz
Room, you are wonderful people.”
After complimenting the audience, he
praises the club.
“This is a great venue. I play all over the world, and this is in the
top five. And this piano is great, I
give it a 10,” O'Neal says.
The second set: I'm Born Again, Where Can I
Go Without You?, On the Trail, Over Joyed, Homeboy Blues, Make Someone Happy.
After a loud and long standing ovation, O'Neal played Night Mist Blues for an
encore.
“I am over-joyed to be in The Jazz Room and
hope to be back again soon,” O'Neal says.
While introducing Make Someone Happy,
O'Neal says: “If you love life, life will love you back. If you make someone happy, you will be happy
too.”
O'Neal was born and raised in Detroit . He first sang and played gospel in the Bethany Baptist Church . He maintains connections to his hometown,
playing the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2013.
The re-union of O'Neal with Young and
Clarke was 30 years in the making. After making the two albums with Young and
Clark in Detroit , O'Neal returned to New York City . After arriving in New York in 1980 O'Neal made a name for
himself playing int the bands of Art Blakey, Milt Jackson and Clark Terry. In 1986 he was mugged outside his Harlem
apartment, and he left New York .
He spent the next 25 years out of the spotlight,
playing mostly in Detroit , Atlanta
and St. Louis .
“I thought he was dead,” Clarke says as he
sips a beer after the Sunday gig. “When I heard Johnny O'Neil was coming to Toronto to play, I
thought it must be a younger relative of Johnny's. Not the Johnny we played
with in the Eighties.”
Clarke moved to New York City in 1985 and stayed until 1999.
He was there through the worst of the crack cocaine scourge. The murder rate peaked in New York in 1990. Clarke had no idea O'Neal had fled the
violence, and the two never re-connected --- until last week in Toronto and Sunday in The
Jazz Room.
In 1998 O'Neal contracted HIV. He lost a lot of weight, but returned to New
York City four years ago. With the help of friends he got his health
back, regaining 40 pounds. Among those friend are Spike Wilner, the manager at
Smalls in the West
Village . Last year, Wilner released a CD of O'Neal on
the Live at Smalls label. It is O'Neal's first recording in a dozen years.
Every Saturday O'Neal plays a midnight gig
in Smoke at 105 Street and Broadway. Every Sunday O'Neal plays a Smalls, the
basement club on West 10th
Street that has near-religious status in the West Village
jazz scene. Mondays O'Neal plays at
Mezzrow, the new club Wilner opened last month just across 7th Ave from Smalls. This
masterful artist is rebuilding his career one gig at a time.
The response of the audience to Sunday's
show in The Jazz Room ensures O'Neal will play there again. It is just a matter
of when.
“I had tears in my eyes,” Denise Baker, a
local jazz singer, says of that show..
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