Piano Night 2013

Photos by Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee
Text by Ryan Sparks

One night a year, the funky, strolling, trilling style of piano playing that was born in the Crescent City and imported internationally gets the royal treatment at the House of Blues.  Piano Night is not just a benefit concert for WWOZ, but also provides a more intimate opportunity to get a heaping dose of R&B, funk, and jazz, rolling almost without interruption off the keys.  Players are chosen from the well-known ranks of local legends, but the event also brings in masters from abroad to revitalize standards and covers.  No matter who took the keys--whether they hit them percussively or built up layers of chords that settled sweetly like veils drifting down on heavy air--they played from the heart and showed that even in tradition there can be wild indulgence.