RAVENSWOOD — In a stirring continuation of his musical truth, the piano player in the Ravenswood Mariano’s is twelve minutes deep into his interpretation of the class song “Rainbow Condition,” with no signs of slowing down.
“I thought for sure he’d wrap it up after the second key change,” said shopper Paloma Da Silva, 29. “But then he disappeared into a flurry of arpeggios and started riffing for a while on the chorus, so I figured we were settling in to at least half an hour of this piece.” The piano player, Brian Everson, 42, has been working the Mariano’s circuit for just over eight decades. “I play the hits, chopped and screwed,” he said on his finger break in the alley. “That’s the way management wants it, so that’s the way it’s going to be.”
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Mariano’s pianists didn’t always view their craft in such a resigned manner, however. The pianist collective made the choice to scale down their performances after several shows that went too far in the early twentieth century. The West Town Mariano’s made headlines in 1923 for a musician’s chaotic portrayal of Schubert's Erlkönig, which ended with the baby grand collapsing into a display of Vito Coco coconut water. Nowadays, musicians keep their repertoire relatively staid, with an emphasis on endurance and recognizability. “The customers like to know that they’ve heard the song I’m playing before, and they like that I usually play it for an hour straight,” said Everson, soaking his fingers in a vat of lukewarm scented water before his next shift at the instrument.
Da Silva, a grocery shopping regular, is used to the thematic consistency of the store’s musicians. “When I spend eight minutes deciding between which color bell pepper will spark joy in my husband’s salad, the sameness of the music makes me feel like only one minute has passed. And that’s what I love about Mariano’s, the grocery store.”
Unlike other stores in the area, Mariano’s prioritizes having a piano raised on a dais next to the big beer fridge room, and most see that as something to be celebrated. “I see pianos sometimes...yeah,” said patron Yves Samuel, 62. “But usually they’re at my level. Not so with the Mariano’s pianos. Pretty special.”
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As shoppers shuffled through aisles of cereals and sour creams, the notes of “Rainbow Connection” continued to drift overhead, like a dream. Or, just maybe, like a song from a piano.
