It did not cut through the air like a glockenspiel, although some players like a bell-tonelike upper register, especially if you’re trying to slice through the wall of sound produced by some styles of music. But I think that the Mason & Hamlin’s strong round bottom is preferable in ensemble playing and probably easier to amplify.Īs I rolled up toward the upper register I experienced a soft array of tones and colors. This is good for some situations, especially when you’re with a 90-piece symphony orchestra. A lot of grands boom out from under an open lid. This model did not have an imposing bottom. The hallmark of a good piano is that it feels good enough to inspire the player to reach out and go in other directions. This piano felt comfortable.Īs I began to play I knew immediately that the action was responsive to my heavy playing as well as my most subtle nuances. The same experience one has when sitting in a new car for the first time: It’s either comfortable or it’s not.
It is the welcoming warmth of an inanimate object that can only be described in abstract terms. The first thing I noticed was the warmth I felt as I sat down to play the Mason & Hamlin BB piano it’s the feeling a pianist gets before the first note is played. Our pianos today have Mason & Hamlin Boston imprinted on the plate.” “We follow a time-honored tradition, using the very finest materials in the world, building each piano by hand and paying attention to the most scrupulous detail. “Mason & Hamlin has always been built pretty much to a formula that dates all the way back to what is called the Boston Era ,” explains Cecil Ramirez, the national sales manager. And the company they founded in 1854 has been carrying on that tradition ever since. Long before I played my first note, a master craftsman and inventor named Emmons Hamlin hooked up with a talented musician named Henry Mason to make the very finest musical instrument in the world. When I say that my appreciation of a good piano is deep I speak from having experienced the very best to the very worst, each experience, both good and bad, leaving a lasting mark on my soul. When musicians were laughing at the prospect of the electric Wurlitzer finding its place on stage, we were struggling with acoustic pianos that were more than likely out of tune, broken and had little or no amplification. We had to adjust to whatever instrument was in the club, whatever condition it was in, and make music with it.
For jazz pianists, especially those of us who came up in the “acoustic pre-electric era,” when most clubs had either a piano or a B-3 on the stage, appreciation of a good piano was established early.
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