Joe the Piano Tuner

Joe the piano tuner—industrious son of mirthful Bob and green-thumb Mary made a splendid discovery last week. It arrived today.

Itsa baby grand. Mark made it look easy.

I started “googling” jazz, Gaslight Square, and the like. The piano is so evocative of this neighborhood’s footprint and may help remedy the Official Gaslight Square website lament, “Then Gaslight Square died... allowed by lack of political will, police protection, and public apathy to fade, to dim, and to die….Not a trace of Gaslight Square remains today, aside from this website.”

Doesn’t music live forever? The history of Gaslight is sketchy and referred to as sketchy. Here, and gone again was a counter-culture; a generation wrestling with an awareness of changing social values and perceptions.

Gaslight Square most certainly hosted a provocative culture that included Woody Allen and Gypsy Rose Lee. This was nurtured by Jay Landesman, a man instrumental in the area’s success and owner of The Crystal Palace.

Wikipedia and UMSL provide some photos and dialogue from oral histories.