\nI talk <\/strong>a lot at nursing-<\/span><\/span>home gigs. I like to get the audience talking, too. I ask the audience about their favorite delis and where they went to high school. One guy always heckles me \u2013 \u201cAgain with the high schools?\u201d Yes, again with the high schools. And this guy is not even a resident; he visits a friend who lives in the nursing home.<\/p>\n
I often ask listeners their names. At my last gig, there was a woman, Ona, who said she was named for the actress Ona Munson. Never heard of Ona Munson. I didn\u2019t ask Ona where she went to high school because she’s from New Jersey and nobody in Cleveland knows about New Jersey high schools.<\/p>\n
An elderly husky black man had some musical requests. He was a visitor. He wanted \u201cOne O\u2019Clock Jump.\u201d I didn\u2019t know it. Then he said, \u201cAnything by Glenn Miller?\u201d I played \u201cI Got Rhythm.\u201d Close enough. He rocked-and-rolled to every song \u2013 clapping and singing along. Alan Douglass (my piano accompanist) and I played all kinds of music: klezmer, American pop, Israeli. The man grooved to everything. He said his name was Roland Hanna.<\/p>\n
“Roland Hanna! I guess Alan and I better go home now,” I said. Alan and I would leave and let Roland take over. Roland smiled. Roland Hanna, the renowned pianist. Roland told us to continue.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/roland-hanna.jpeg\")
Roland Hanna<\/p><\/div>\n
Alan asked Roland if he liked “sweet soul,” a favorite genre of Alan’s. Roland was cool with that. Alan did \u201cStone in Love With You\u201d by the Stylistics. Roland knew every word. Then Roland requested Billy Joel. It\u2019s affecting when black musicians request songs by white artists. Roland said, \u201cYou can do Billy Joel! You’ve got a harmonica player.” I did have a harp. We played \u201cPiano Man,\u201d featuring harp.<\/p>\n
Alan did<\/strong> <\/span>a country tune, “Behind Closed Doors\u201d by Charlie Rich, and\u00a0 we did the soul tune “My Girl,” and Alan did a funk tune, \u201cWill It Go Round in Circles.\u201d All for Roland Hanna.<\/p>\n Before the final tune of the set, I asked Roland if he wanted to play something with us. He passed. After the gig, we schmoozed. I asked if he still played. He said he had never played. He said he was Rollin Hannah, Cleveland Heights High class of ’69. He said, “It’s Rollin<\/em> like in Sonny Rollins,<\/em> and Hannah, <\/em>spelled the same backwards and forward.”<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Pianist Roland Hanna was a Detroit musician who played in the Thad Jones –Mel Lewis Big Band in New York in the 1970s. “Roland Hanna” — the name — stuck with me all these years. Stuck a bit too hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I talk a lot at nursing-home gigs. I like to get the audience talking, too. I ask the audience about their favorite delis and where they went to high school. One guy always heckles me \u2013 \u201cAgain with the high schools?\u201d Yes, again with the high schools. And this guy is not even a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klezmer","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31757"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31811,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31757\/revisions\/31811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}