Former JUDDS keyboardist helping to create local 'dueling pianos' bar

If the answer's no, you'll get your chance soon, when Tulsa club kingpin Steve Kitchell opens a new nightspot called the First Street Alley at First and Detroit streets. His consultant on the project is native Tulsan Jon Glazer, a pianist, singer and songwriter who was in on the dueling-pianos idea from the very beginning.

"I started in August of '87 at a place called Alley Cats in Dallas," he recalled recently. "The concept is two pianos facing one another, both playing at the same time. Each player has to know hundreds of songs, from Elvis to Pearl Jam, and the point of the thing is to get the audience singing all night long. There's also a lot of really bawdy shtick involved, which my father came to see and actually enjoyed." He chuckled. "I'm glad my mother never saw it, though.

"That was the first rock 'n' roll dueling pianos singalong bar," he added. "Of course, Pat O'Brien's down in New Orleans has always been there, but it's `5-foot-2, eyes of blue' stuff. This was Motown, Stones, Beatles. I've got a clipping from the Dallas Morning News that says we sold more liquor per square foot, from 1988 through 1990, than any other bar in Texas."

Glazer's career also took him to similar venues in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Boston, San Antonio, Denver, and Irvine, Calif., in between more prestigious gigs -- notably, stints as the JUDDS' keyboardist on their farewell tour, and, later, with Wynonna Judd. Now, he's back in Tulsa, where the whole thing started for him some 30 years ago.

"I was playing when I was 6, and I started playing in front of people when I was 14," Glazer said. "I was playing left-handed keyboard bass and singing lead, and Steve Smith, who's now president of Steeltek, played drums. We found ourselves playing for junior high dances and things, and I went from being a geek to a popular guy because of that."

He laughed. "Remember (former U.S. Representative) Page Belcher? We were Page Turner and the Readers," he said, "even though there were only two of us in the band."

From there, Glazer went to the progressive-rock band Wilderness, which also featured such familiar Tulsa music names as Ron Morgan, David Thayer and Pat Savage. Later, Glazer and Savage started a group called the MVPs, which Glazer left to enroll at North Texas State University. His studies with James Kirk at Booker T. Washington High School enabled Glazer to test out of a lot of classes at the college, but, he said, "I missed gigging -- I'd been doing it for almost 10 years -- so I left after two semesters."

Eventually, he found himself in L.A., where he landed his first name-artist gig, playing sessions with once-hot pop artist Rick Springfield.

"These were demos, designed to get him a new record deal, and it was really interesting music -- a cross between Steely Dan and Santana -- with advanced chord progressions and heavy percussion," Glazer remembered. "But he took them around (to the record companies), and everyone said, `This isn't Rick Springfield music.' They all wanted `Jessie's Girl' part two.

"But it was a musical challenge, which was what I was after more than anything. And he was nothing but a gentleman and a scholar."

His next high-profile job came when he was living in Dallas, and a friend of his, who was drumming for the JUDDS, called from Nashville to let him know the mother-daughter duo's keyboardist had been sidelined by a debilitating car wreck, and they needed a fill-in keyboardist for their upcoming farewell tour. The next day, Glazer flew to Nashville for an audition.

"I'd played country songs, but most of my gigs had been rock 'n' roll or jazz, so I thought I'd better look the part," Glazer said. "So I went out to one of the western stores on Central Expressway in Dallas, and I bought a $200 pair of cowboy boots, a pair of black Wranglers -- I'd never worn black Wranglers in my life -- and one of those Garth-looking shirts.

"So I fly down to Nashville, walk into the studio, and the drummer takes one look at me and says, `What the hell are you doing in those clothes?' "

After a quick change into less flashy duds, Glazer auditioned, and the job eventually came down to him and one other keyboardist -- who happened to be the piano player at the JUDDS' church. You can imagine, then, that he was "ecstatic and shocked at the same time" when they picked him. He ended up as the JUDDS' regular keyboardist for the entire tour, going out with Wynonna Judd after mother Naomi retired from the business.

"Naomi was an absolute delight," said Glazer. "She'd invite me to ride on their bus, and we'd play board games and have a great time. And they gave me a lot of creative freedom, which doesn't happen a lot in Nashville.

"But when Wynonna went solo, that stopped. I think it was because of fear. In fact, that's what she told me later. She said, `That first year, I was a basket case. I had no one to fall back on.' "

After a year or so, Glazer left and went back to the dueling-piano clubs, where he was an in- demand commodity. It wasn't long before Wynonna caught up with him again.

"She said, `I want you back because you're the best musician I ever had,' " he recalled. "I said, `Cool. Thank you.' At this point, she had the makings of an all- star band, with Willie Weeks on bass and Jim Horn leading the horn section. So I thought, `This is ideal. I'll get great money and get to play with a world-class band.' So I went back and did it for two years, until I found out Wynonna was still steeped in fear. That's when I quit for good."

He kept up the lucrative piano- club work until June of '99, when he was diagnosed with throat polyps. For the next two and a half years, he worked hardly at all, because his doctor didn't want him exposed to smoke.

"It gave me a chance to sit back and assess things over the past 20 years, and I realized the only time I was truly at peace was when I was living here and playing with people like Pat (Savage)," he said. "The people I trusted and respected were in Tulsa. My dad still lives here."

So he made the decision to return home. And, he added, "It's been that I thought it would be." Currently, he works at Monte's Thursdays through Sundays, with vocalist Rebecca Ungerman joining him whenever her work in Blue Combo allows, and at Mezza Mediterranian with Debbie Cambell every other Wednesday.

"I'm also working with another singer, Cindy Cain, who's every bit as good as those two," he said.

He's also putting a band together with his old comrade Savage and writing and recording some of his own compositions. He is, as he noted, " busy" with a number of musical projects since returning home. One project he won't be doing, however, is performing at Tulsa's new dueling-piano club. He's content instead just helping the club get launched.

"My speech pathologist-voice coach told me, `If you do that again, you're crazy,' " he said with another laugh. "I did it for seven years, and it's just too strenuous for me to do any more. You have to sing 40 to 60 rock songs each night you're there -- and even Springsteen doesn't do that."

John Wooley, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8477 or via e-mail at john.wooley@tulsaworld.com .