Larry Brown, the region’s preeminent piano technician, makes sure his pianos and their players – including luminaries like Herbie Hancock, Alicia Keys, and Elton John – hit all the right notes
Photos by Dave Hansen
Zijian Wei is onstage at the Newport Classical Recital Hall coaxing faraway notes from his instrument, a Yamaha C7X Concert Grand piano. One moment the young Chinese master floats an array of fragile romantic notes into the air, like a kaleidoscope of butterflies. Seconds later he punches the keys with thunderous power, evoking a feeling of being chased, heart pounding in your chest. While these effects serve as polarities, Wei touches on every emotion in between, filling the space at Emmanuel Church with the kind of high art only the hands of a brilliant musician can create.
Larry Brown, Newport’s illustrious piano technician and a volunteer at Newport Classical, was happy with the sound. “This hall has great acoustics,” he says. “He was so powerful … he brought out the best in that piano. Pianissimo, fortissimo… he pushed it to all sorts of levels. I thought it sounded excellent.”
Brown is the most sought-after piano technician in the region. He’s the first-call piano guru at the area’s biggest events, including the Newport Folk and Jazz festivals and the Newport Classical concerts. “If you think about it, the piano is an orchestra,” he says. “You want all the notes coming from it to feel like a beautiful ensemble. It’s my job to make it come alive, to bring out the best in every instrument.” He pauses to collect his thoughts. “A performer spends years elevating their art to the highest level. So, if I give them an instrument that doesn’t match that quality, then I’m letting them down.”
Ganbatte Kudasai (頑張ってください)
After working alongside his father and gaining experience, Brown began his professional career at Yamaha as a piano service consultant. The job demanded national and international travel and work at both live performance venues and recording studios with some of the company’s most prestigious artists including Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Elton John, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Randy Newman, Vanessa Carlton and many others. After proving his worth to Yamaha, Brown was invited to attend its elite Piano Technical Academy in Kakegawa, Japan, where he trained with some of the world’s most talented technicians.
“Not many Americans were invited to train there, but I was fortunate enough to participate in several higher-level training programs,” he says. “It’s super rigorous.”
He was promoted to the job of concert technician and assigned the task of translating Yamaha’s instructional guides into English. “They could see that I really gave it my all. I was so immersed in it, 100 percent,” says Brown. “They have a saying in Japanese, ‘Ganbatte kudasai.’ It means, ‘You must fight (to) do your best,’ or ‘Keep going and don’t give up,’ something like that. I’ve never forgotten it. The Japanese have that drive to be the best they can be, and I spent so much time there, I really believed in the power of it.”
Soon after, Brown became a Yamaha piano dealer. He purchased Luca Music in North Providence in 2006, opened a second store in Middletown, then proceeded to close the original store and focus on selling Yamaha and pre-owned Steinways at the Middletown location. He was all in.
The Family Business
Brown has been making pianos come alive for three decades now. It’s a gift and a trade he says he inherited from his father, the late Larry Brown, Sr., a former Navy master chief musician and band leader who passed away in 2010. “He had the heart of a musician to go along with a Navy-style discipline,” says Brown.
After his father left the service, he sold, serviced, and tuned pianos, including those featured on the stages of the folk and jazz fests. “I have pictures of him with Joan Baez and Muddy Waters,” says the younger Brown. “And when I saw he was able to do amazing work like this, I decided I’d follow him on along that path.”
Larry Brown, Sr.’s love for making music and success in the business of musicianship became his legacy. “He was organized, loyal to his local customers, and very talented,” his son says proudly. “I’ve tried to conduct business that same way and I feel like I’ve passed that down to my son.”
Jordan Brown, now 32, is a third-generation piano man. Based in Florida, he is one of Yamaha’s leading piano sales reps.
Unexpectedly, he says, Larry Brown, Jr., picked up another of his father’s passions: the 19-piece Larry Brown Swinglane Orchestra. It’s been playing big band and jazz music throughout the area since the elder Brown formed the ensemble in 1998.
“I have to admit, it was a nutty idea, especially for my father,” says Brown. “But maybe I should call it a labor of love, because he was a trumpeter and loved the sounds of brass.”
He keeps the flame lit, booking and managing the orchestra, which includes five saxophones, four trombones, four trumpets, a piano, bass, drums, guitar, and two vocalists. Retired Navy Senior Chief Musician Don Chilton directs the band, which plays at private weddings, public beach concerts, charity galas, corporate functions, civic celebrations, fundraising benefits, and more.
“It’s pretty crazy keeping track of everyone and making sure we’re all on the same page,” Brown acknowledges. “But the music is spectacular.” (Catch Swinglane at Parlor on Broadway the last Tuesday of every month.)
A Life of Pianos
Today, Brown conducts his piano business — tuning services, lessons, retail sales and everything else related to the instrument — out of a nondescript business park in Middletown. Like so much of what he does, it’s characterized by modesty and understatement, though he has every right to be immensely proud.
“I’ve spent my life working with pianos, training with the best, working with the best,” he says as he leads a guest through several showrooms. Around every corner appears a collection of gorgeous pianos — concert grands, baby grands, Clavinovas, acoustics, and digitals. There are rooms full of equipment ready to move a piano to a concert hall, private home, outdoor stage or other location. “No, I don’t do it alone,” Brown says, smiling while noting he has a staff of movers on call to quickly respond to emergency requests.
He stops at a piano that’s different from the rest and sits on its nearby bench. The piano is a Steinway Model B Music Room Grand from 1912, once owned by retail magnate F.W. Woolworth. Crafted from two different types of walnut in an ornate, Louis XVI design, the instrument is royalty incarnate.
The lid is propped up to reveal a gold-plated soundboard and mechanicals, accented with bright red velvet fabric. “This one’s been completely rebuilt,” Brown says, playing a quick flourish of notes. It’s a star among stars in the showroom and sounds like the day it was built, at least to the visitor’s untrained ears.
Brown shares some memories of his formative years as a young musician in Newport, notably as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter in a local rock band called Mantis. The group held a residency at the old Harpo’s nightclub on Downing Street back in the early ’80s. On the surface, there might appear to be a serious disconnect between those nights making music in gritty clubs, and all the polished beauties in Brown’s showrooms. Then again, maybe not.
“Love of music in any form, especially in this particular art of working with pianos, takes a certain concentration and desire to make it the best it can be,” he says, “whether it’s a rock band in Newport or a pianist headlining the folk festival.”
On Location
The next day, Brown brings his guest to Ron Fleming’s Bellevue House, a lovely Colonial Revival home on Bellevue Avenue. Brown is seated at the piano, playing an impromptu version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” when Fleming walks into the room. Dressed in a characteristic dandy blazer and bowler hat, he smiles as he eases down on a nearby sofa and rests his cane.
“I love having music in my house,” says Fleming. “Larry is something. This piano brings me so much joy.”
Technicians and artists worldwide depend on Brown’s deft touch and refined ear to deliver the joy a perfect-sounding piano can provide. Just as his father did, Brown treats local customers as he would a concert headliner. “If I tune a piano at someone’s home, I’m obliged to do the very same work as if it were a 9-foot Yamaha concert grand on the stage. That’s the mindset,” he explains.
In the end, though, what’s it all about? The magical performances? The stunningly beautiful instruments? Sure, but that’s not what motivates Brown.
“Honestly,” he says, “I get the most satisfaction working with the great teams I’m a part of. I get to work with all the artists here in Newport, all the great bands and players, all the fantastic friends I’ve met along the way. We’re all striving to put on the best shows possible and help great musicians make the best music they can. That’s my goal, and those moments are the real highlights for me.”
