Remembering George Jones at Oliver's

Thinking back on a time and place that I loved

I heard recently that the Buffalo pianist George Jones had died. The world has lost a little something.

Years ago when I worked for the Niagara Gazette, I used to go and hear George Jones at Oliver’s. In those days, as I wrote a while ago, I was taking jazz lessons from an excellent pianist named Ron Eschner, and he was, or had been, a student of Jones’. You could tell it from his sophisticated harmonies. Ron always had beautiful harmonies and he would often credit George Jones.

Ron told me to go to Oliver’s and hear George Jones. He said dress nice, sit at the bar. Just listen, he said. See what you pick up.

So I used to go, with my friends.

It was an era that would not come again. Actually it was the end of that era. When I think back on going to hear George Jones, I always remember it winter. We would sweep into the restaurant with the wind and the snow. The restaurant was set up well with a few pairs of doors so with luck, the outside doors would close before the inside doors would open.

Inside it was sleek, warm, and welcoming. Women would be handing their furs to the coat girl. There were coat girls then, and furs. We did not have furs. We looked with respect at the ladies who did. The bar would be noisy. There was a wonderful noisy bartender in those days, barking at the customers, whooping it up. He would hand around new cocktails for us to sample. Up at the top of this post is a picture I found on Trip Advisor that is more or less what the bar area used to look like. They had these beautiful old plush booths. in the front.

George Jones would be at the baby grand piano you see in the picture. Typically, he would have a trio. He had a quiet, graceful style somewhat at odds with the raucous bartender. He was always in good humor. Fatherly, smiling at us, extremely nice. He was a settled down man, a family man. Rumor had it that he used to play Nietzsche’s and I seem to remember he confirmed the rumors. However you could not imagine him there. This was a different world.

I used to love hearing him play the Cole Porter songs, the Gershwin. I was just getting into jazz back then and I did not know that many songs. I was learning. This was before cell phones and I don’t have pictures or videos. All I have are these vague but lovely memories of these wonderful winter nights.

George Jones created such a beautiful atmosphere! Such smooth, graceful piano. Such lovely harmonies.

A different time in my life. It’s gone now. Some years ago, Oliver’s got rid of the piano where George Jones used to play. I hated that and I complained about it in The Buffalo News. To no avail. I used to complain about stuff all the time and there really wasn’t much difference between complaining in the paper and complaining to your friends. Whatever was happening still happened. Still, it’s nice that the restaurant is still there. I do wish they would get a piano again however, to give me a reason to go.

How does that old country song go? “Don’t rock the jukebox. I want to hear George Jones.”

I miss him!

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