[Dixielandjazz] The Fazioli

[Stephen G Barbone]

Have any of our keyboard members ever played a Fazioli?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


At a Jazz Series, a Piano Also Stars

NY TIMES - April 16, 2011 - By TAMMY LA GORCE


AS high a profile as Fred Hersch enjoys among jazz fans — the pianist  
has been nominated for three Grammy Awards — he had a bit of  
competition for the spotlight during a recent show at theUnion County  
Performing Arts Center here.

His performance, the first in a series of four jazz concerts this  
spring at the center’s 55-seat piano loft, was a solo appearance. But  
the piano he used to play a selection of his own and other composers’  
works attracted attention because of its brand name: Fazioli.

The arts center is currently only one of two places in New Jersey  
where the public can hear a Fazioli, according to Paolo Fazioli, the  
founder of the company, which is based in Sacile, Italy.

The other place is Kean University in Union, which bought one of the  
handmade Italian pianos in 2009 for its 324-seat Gene and Shelley  
Enlow Recital Hall.

Only 200 of the pianos, which cost $80,000 to $200,000, have been  
shipped to the United States since the company started selling them  
here in 1994, according to Mr. Fazioli. One high-profile owner is the  
Juilliard School in Manhattan, where the music division, dominated by  
Steinways, recently bought a Fazioli after leasing one since last year.

In Rahway, Jim Kennedy, 58, now the arts center’s executive director,  
initiated the city’s purchase of the piano, which cost $95,000, while  
he was mayor, a post he held from 1991 through 2010.

Mr. Kennedy said he was “thrilled to see local people in the  
audiences” at the piano loft in the historic 1920s building. “I’m also  
pleasantly surprised by people who are coming from all different areas  
— Livingston, Short Hills — who have piano culture as part of their  
life and are really well versed in pianos,” he said.

“I’m not a piano guy,” he added, “but people who come and play it say,  
‘It’s been my dream to play one of these.’ ”

The 1,000-square-foot loft, outfitted with theater lighting, a wood  
floor and folding chairs, was added to the building for music and  
small theatrical productions in 2008. (The Fazioli is also used when  
needed in the main auditorium, which seats 1,300.)

As ticket-holders file in for piano performances, they are offered  
complimentary Champagne and cut strawberries.

The spring jazz series will also include performances by James Weidman  
on May 7 and Dan Tepfer on May 21. For the piano’s official unveiling,  
in March 2010, the Russian pianist Vassily Primakov performed.

Jim Luce, co-owner with his wife, Genevieve, of Conservatory Piano and  
Hi Fi, a music store that makes and produces LPs and sells home hi-fi  
systems as well as pianos, sold Rahway its Fazioli and later became  
the producing director at the piano loft; Mr. Luce’s store is next  
door to the arts center.

In addition to being one of seven Fazioli dealers in the United  
States, Mr. Luce, 58, who lives in Easton, Pa. — he is planning a move  
to Rahway in June — is the producer of the annual Caramoor Jazz  
Festival in Katonah, N.Y. For years the Luces also held a concert  
series in their home.

“In the normal world, someone like Fred Hersch is going to play an  
auditorium with between 400 and 800 people,” said Mr. Luce, who was  
M.C. for the recent performance, which sold out. “That up-close,  
uplifting, spiritual experience can only come in this intimate  
atmosphere. This space is the very thing that makes us world-class.”

Mr. Hersch, whose performance won a standing ovation, did not talk  
about the piano either onstage or beforehand. In an interview before  
the show, he explained why he could not. “I’m a Steinway artist,” he  
said.


Concerts in the spring jazz series at the Union County Performing Arts  
Center, 1601 Irving Street, Rahway, begin at 8 p.m. Tickets: $15;  
ucpac.org or (732) 499-8226.