Piano bar

A piano bar (also known as a piano lounge) consists of a piano or electronic keyboard played by a professional musician. Piano bars can be located in a cocktail lounge, bar, hotel lobby, office building lobby, restaurant, or on a cruise ship. Usually the pianist receives a small salary plus tips in a jar or basket on or near the piano, especially from patrons requesting a song traditionally written on a beverage napkin.^[1] Some piano bars feature a baby grand or grand piano surrounded by stools for patrons (or, an upright piano or digital piano encased by a cabinet resembling a grand piano). Others have a bar surrounding the piano or keyboard.

For other uses, see Piano bar (disambiguation).

Instrumental only: the professional piano/keyboard player plays strictly instrumental music, which is usually , jazz, or easy listening; this type of piano bar is often found in hotel lobby lounges or fine dining restaurants and upscale bars.

classical

Only the musician sings: the professional piano/keyboard player sings to his/her accompaniment, usually on , but no other singers are generally allowed.^[4] Examples include Carousel Piano Bar & Lounge.

microphone

Musician and servers sing: the professional musician sings and also invites servers to sing solos. In this type of bar, the servers are selected for having both serving and singing skills.

Sing-along: patrons surrounding the piano/keyboard sing as a group, usually without microphones, often preferring , show tunes, pop and rock. It is "a social venue for singing".^[5] Examples include Marie's Crisis Cafe and The Duplex in Greenwich Village.

standards

: usually on stage with two grand pianos, each played by a professional player who sing and entertain; humor and audience participation are important. Usually these bars have substantial sound systems, and most of the songs performed are rock and roll, classic rock, Top 40, R&B or country, sometimes played by request. The format is based on dueling piano entertainments offered at Pat O'Brien's Bar in New Orleans, Louisiana. Numerous popular clubs^[6] offer the sing-along format, while Howl at the Moon Piano Bar, Shake Rattle & Roll Dueling Pianos (in New York City) and The Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar feature full performance shows, often with singing and dancing by their wait staff.^[7]^[8]^[9]

Dueling pianos

: individual patrons sing (on microphone) to the accompaniment of the professional musician; in some ways, this type of piano bar is like karaoke, except that the music is live and dynamic, and there are usually no lyrics available (although some piano bar players do supply some lyrics); like karaoke, the songs performed may cover a wide, eclectic range (show tunes, standards from the 1920s forward, jazz, country, R&B, rock'n'roll, blues, folk, soul, disco, hip-hop, etc.); the patron singers are usually called to the microphone in a rotating order; often, each singer is allowed two or three songs each time he/she is called to perform. The Alley in Oakland, California, uses this format.

Open mic

Combination: some piano bars include the characteristics of two or more of the above, either on different nights or combined on the same night.

"One-man band": The musician uses an electronic keyboard equipped with built-in accompaniment function and to emulate the sounds of a live band, usually in MIDI format. It is mainly popular in Europe and Asia, often playing regional popular music.

music sequencers

There are several types of piano bars:

Awards[edit]

The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs presents annually several awards, MAC Awards, for piano bar performers: Piano Bar Instrumentalist, Restaurant/Hotel Lounge Instrumentalist, Piano Bar/Restaurant Singing Entertainer – male and female.^[10]

Notable piano bar performers[edit]

Jimmy Durante started as a piano bar player, as did Billy Joel. Joel's classic hit "Piano Man" is based on his experiences as a piano bar player. Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli also played in piano bars to pay for singing lessons.

in Amsterdam where Cab Kaye performed, when not touring, five nights a week from 1979 until 1988

Cab Kaye's Jazz Piano Bar

is a 1989 American romantic comedy-drama musical film. It features "dueling pianos" music. Real-life brothers Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges star as two brothers struggling to make a living as lounge jazz pianists in Seattle.

The Fabulous Baker Boys

in Paris and its piano bar "Ivories" where George Gershwin composed An American in Paris

Harry's New York Bar

in Casablanca, Morocco, designed to recreate the bar made famous in the film Casablanca