ARTS Youthful Master of the Keyboard Michael is making music on the piano for an admiring and growing number of fans. He tells the story of the splendid human being who influenced him the most and of the amazing course of his life and his art. Jan 2008

Michael Martinez

I’m a third generation Peninsula resident. At age 11 I began taking piano lessons. My interest in the piano surged dramatically when my grandfather gave me a Christmas CD of piano music by Monterey resident, Jonathan Lee.

I almost instantly became a fan of the music that he was playing. The music spoke to me. It was unpretentious and accessible. I had been searching for a musical style, and it seemed to me that to be able to play music as Jonathan Lee played it would provide an excellent steppingstone towards my emerging style.

I have learned to play by ear and so, after listening to more of Lee’s music, I was able to adopt his fashion of playing. I listened to his Themes and Variations album until I understood how he put together chords and melodies and was then able to play the pieces on the piano myself.

Following in the Master’s Steps
I began composing simple songs following Jonathan’s style and continued experimenting with my melodies. As my style continued to develop my compositions continued to sound more and more like Jonathan’s. I was getting a good grasp on the characteristics of his musical vision.

Playing andante — at the tempo of a heartbreak — was one of Jonathan’s techniques, thus producing music that was relaxing to the mind and soothing to the soul. This was part of the foundation of his music style and it became the basis of my own.

The task of playing like Jonathan Lee engaged my passions on a deeper level than my piano lessons had been when I was learning notes and mechanics.

My grandfather knew Jonathan because the two of them were fellow passengers on a city commuter bus that they shared. Grandpa told Jonathan about me and set up a date when the two of us could meet. On the appointed day we picked Jonathan up at his apartment and took him to lunch at Spanish Bay.

There were a couple pianos in the dining room and Jonathan invited me to play. Since I was only 13, he wasn’t prepared for how much justice I would be able to do to his piano style.

Nine months later Jonathan sponsored a Lover’s Point concert and invited me to make my professional debut at the event. The two of us met a number of times while preparing for the occasion. What he knew and we didn’t was that Jonathan was grooming me to take his place. His days were numbered because he had been born with a particularly terrible form of diabetes that was now killing him.

It was amazing how this all came together. The concert was a dream come true. I wanted to be like him. For his part, Jonathan needed someone to take his place. He saw in me a person who could pick up his mantel when he would lay it down, which he knew would be soon.

The expectation of performing with him filled me with great joy. Unfortunately, his declining health cut short the plans that we were making together.

When Jonathan passed away I began to step into his shoes. People who liked him understood that I was continuing his legacy in his behalf. Jonathan was living through me while I was performing. My life changed, and the change continues to grow as my art matures. I’m performing more songs and moving forward. It’s a good feeling.

The Lovers Point Concert was my coming-out event and it just felt right. At 14 I had arrived at a place where I really wanted to be. The performance was a little rough, but I had enough material to satisfy people.

I performed a unique composition called “My Friend Jonathan” as a surprise for Jonathan — and he was really pleased. It was such a beautiful day! Such a beautiful event! Such a beautiful human being!

I played everything I knew and did my very best. To my surprise, even though the people showed up for Jonathan, they seemed glad to listen to me.

We didn’t realize how ill Jonathan was; he didn’t want us to know. Three days after the concert he was in the hospital, and in less than a month he was gone. He had bought a new grill and was preparing to have us over to celebrate the concert. But we never were able to pull it off.

Everything changed when he passed. He had publicly announced that I would be taking his place at the Big Sur Marathon, and seven months later, to the day, I was sitting at the piano at the Bixby Bridge, which was the Big Sur Halfway Point.

On race day we showed up on location at 5:00 a.m., while it was still so dark that we missed the bridge and didn’t know that we had overshot our destination.

The piano arrived an hour after we did. We all worked together to help assemble that beautiful instrument.

I was playing by 7:00 a.m., in time to greet the first runners who, not surprisingly turned out to be two Kenyans who arrived shortly after I had begun playing.

The piano was hooked up to speakers that blasted the music up and down the highway so runners were able to hear the music all the way from the top of Hurricane Point, which was the top of a pass from which runners could see the welcome decline down to the bridge and to the source of the music that they were listening to.

It was an emotional marathon because we had erected a memorial to Jonathan. There was a lot of bawling and laughing as people looked back, remembered him, and mourned at his passing while rejoicing at the legacy that he had left.

Many of the runners would pause to get their pictures taken. Some of them would leave a quarter, for some reason that I still haven’t figured out.

Others would leave poems or, in one case, a medallion. They would kiss me, and give me sweaty hugs. I think they thought I was good luck like shaking the hand of a chimney sweep in England. Others would sit at the piano and get their picture taken with me.

After they left me and continued the race my music would chase them up the hill as they left the bridge on their way to their destination.

From the first Kenyan to the final senior citizen, people poured past the piano for nearly four hours in a continuous flow of thousands of runners.

By the end the crowds thinned as people who were relatively out-of-shape came limping and hobbling by. The last runner came after I had finished playing.

“Aren’t you going to play for me?” she asked in a plaintive voice. I handed her the song-sheet and then played her favorite song for her.

It was fun playing for the last runners and I was as glad to play for them as for the first one.

The Piano Player
The next year, even though I was still only 15 years old, I got a gig playing at Pacific Grove’s Favaloro’s Restaurant. That became the birth of my professional career. I was now getting a paycheck for doing something that I would have been glad to do for free. It was a happy thing!

The first time I played I had a bad case of nerves. I didn’t know how people would react to my playing so I was a little tentative, at first. But then I got into the spirit of the occasion and the music began to roll off my fingers. I didn’t have much of a repertoire at those opening concerts, but began adding more.

I got recognized in the press when the Monterey County Life & Times did an article on me. After that people began stopping me in the street and my career took a dramatic change upwards. I began getting gigs at special events such as birthdays, anniversaries, fundraisers, and benefits. The City would call upon me for local events like Community Hospital benefits and Meals on Wheels. Local businesses would hire me to play for Christmas parties.

I played for special events at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, at library events, at Sunset Center, and for corporate events at the Hyatt.

When I was in the sixth grade I had played as a volunteer for senior citizens as part of my community service requirements, but I’m still doing it today.

I feel like I would gladly have played at the Favaloro’s for the rest of my life, but the restaurant downsized and I was out of work. However, the Food and Beverage Manager at the Holliday Inn had worked for the Favaloro’s restaurant. When she heard that the Favaloro’s was going out of business she offered me a gig at the Holliday Inn Beach Resort Thursday through Saturday evenings.

That experience stretched me. They hired me to play for four hours so I had to ramp up my skills and especially my repertoire. At the beginning of a set I would hand out request sheets with my songs on them. I would try to play anything, but felt more comfortable with material that I had practiced.

I began playing a broader range of music, mostly standards. I picked up the oldies from grandfather’s radio stations. Everything on Jonathan’s repertoire ended up on mine. I was doing themes from movies, and included some popular melodies.

My style of play is now a reflection of Lee’s style rather than an imitation. I’m diverging these days and use more arpeggios and other kinds of movement than Jonathan did. As a result, my music these days tends to be more full, elaborate, and perhaps more experimental than his.

I’m also doing my own compositions using my own unique style and creativity. Things never remain the same. Jonathan, if he were alive and healthy, wouldn’t be playing the same today as he did a few years ago.

A unique composition is a great thing to perform, because the thing that comes out of the piano when I’m doing a solo piano composition is really me. I’m also doing some jazz — playing in the school’s jazz band, and taking lessons.

I’m still a little amazed sometimes at how it’s possible for me to get paid for bringing pleasure to people’s lives by doing the one thing that I especially love to do.

God seems to be smiling down on me. I like to imagine that Jonathan Lee is smiling down on me too.

For more information about Michael contact www.Jonathanleemusic.com, or at mikepgca@aol.com, or contact michaelmartinezmusic.com.

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