Piano bar-hopping

Alex Coolman

“And who’s that woman sitting over there?” the man at the microphone

asked, his voice husky with suggestion. “The one in red.”

Every eye in the dim restaurant swiveled toward the bright lights of the

bar, where the object of the inquiry, her face now almost the same color

as her sweater, gave her name with a smile.

“Well, you’re beautiful,” the man said. “This one’s for you.”

With that, the man nodded at Rich Fauno, house pianist at Villa Nova, who

launched into a rumbling rendition of “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With

You.”

Fauno played the chords like the soundtrack to an epic drama, and the man

crooning away at the microphone -- who no doubt believed he was playing

the lead role in that drama -- did his best to muster the appropriate

degree of musical heroism.

It was another night on the Newport-Mesa piano bar circuit, where hearts

are won and lost, many a cocktail is consumed, and the ivories are always

immaculately tickled.

Around town, despite the challenge posed by trendier entertainment

options like karaoke and nightclubs, piano bars continue to flicker away

like a low flame on a table-side candle.

They aren’t especially chic and their clientele is often much older than

the crowds that would be found behind a velvet rope, but that’s a

significant part of their appeal. In an age of irony and hype, piano bars

offer a cozy refuge of unabashed sentimentality for everyday people.

Villa Nova features the playing of Fauno at its sunken white piano Sunday

through Wednesday, and as his starting time approaches, the restaurant

fills with area residents who come to sing or simply to listen. Many of

those who sit around the red leather spill skirt that borders the piano

are older women and men, their hair groomed in perfect style, their

formal attire spotless.

The tunes being played at a piano bar are likely to be classic as well.

Fauno plays Cole Porter and Gershwin, show tunes and torch songs. He

segues from “Don’t Cry for me Argentina” into “The Lady is a Tramp” with

tremendous skill and no shortage of joking around for the benefit of the

audience.

Over at the lounge at The Four Seasons, the material Jay Milburn plays

roughly the same vintage, but the delivery is different.

Milburn sings all the material himself in a fine, reverb-washed voice and

creates a bar vibe more low-key and atmospheric than that at Villa Nova.

The Four Seasons, of course, hosts a fairly upscale crowd, and Milburn’s

performance must be correspondingly smooth -- a goal he has no trouble

accomplishing.

“My four major influences are Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett

and Lou Rawls,” Milburn says. He tosses off hits by these four, along

with the occasional audience request, at a a grand piano covered in taupe

leather, with bar stools snuggled against its sides.

Around the lounge, orchids are perched in crystal vases and candles burn

at every table. From the pristine marble bar, listeners can gaze out the

floor-to-ceiling windows at the theatrically lit garden. Having a drink

at The Four Seasons is both expensive and good, and doing so seems to

facilitate the appreciation of Milburn’s set.

The hotel scene is fertile ground for piano bar crawling.

Besides The Four Seasons, Costa Mesa’s Doubletree Hotel offers the music

of Daniel Bernard on many weeknights. Diva, the bar in the Plaza Towers

in Costa Mesa, hosts the talented Diane Whittaker on Friday and Saturday

nights. Whittaker’s act is more contemporary than that of other piano

bars, and the restaurant’s sophisticated atmosphere appears to be as

conducive to espionage as to lounging.

At the unpretentious end of the piano bar spectrum is the Sunday

afternoon playing at Newport Beach’s Tale of the Whale, when Tim Jones

cranks out ragtime and stride classics by the likes of Scott Joplin and

Eubie Blake.

Here the vibe is decidedly informal, with members of the audience joining

in to accompany Jones in whatever manner they deem appropriate. Some

people sing, others tap quarters against the tables to assist with

keeping the rhythm. One regular likes to play wood blocks, which he

brings with him to the bar specifically for this purpose.

Still, others watch football games on television and eat bowls of clam

chowder, paying no attention to the music.

Jones plays on an old upright piano whose hammers have been lacquered to

give the instrument the distinct, resonant tone associated with ragtime.

Between the ringing sound of his playing and the old-time decor at the

bar, which features a tin ceiling hung with red glass lamps and walls

adorned with red paisley wallpaper, it’s possible to feel transported,

however briefly, back to an earlier era in American music.

Jones calls the material he plays “simple songs that just had simple

messages,” and believes part of the music’s appeal for Tale of the

Whale’s regulars is the opportunity it gives them to revisit the

less-complicated memories of their youth.

“There’s no other place I know of that you can go and listen to that,”

Jones said.

But if sheer nostalgia plays a role in the enduring popularity of piano

bars, the human element in the scene should not be discounted either. As

Jones is quick to point out, “karaoke took a lot of the piano bar

sing-along thing.”

But a piano bar experience is distinctly shaped by the tastes of the

musician performing in a way that a karaoke bar, with its prepackaged

sound and relentless pace of entertainment, can’t hope to achieve.

At Villa Nova, bar patrons frequently comment on the importance of Rich

Fauno’s personality in bringing them back night after night.

Nicole Haugnes, who works as a party planner for Oakwood apartments in

Newport Beach, brings her father Hal to Villa Nova every time he visits

from San Francisco.

“He’s the best,” Haugnes said of Fauno. “Honest to God. He always

remembers you.”

Ann Kozma, who lives at Oakwood and was tagging along with the Haugnes

party, had a similar appreciation for the piano bar’s personal touch.

“He plays ‘Autumn Leaves’ whenever I walk in,” Kozma said. “He makes you

feel like you’re home.”