Piano man and mistress of music: An octogenarian Tri-Cities 'love' affair
The Emerald of Siam is the night spot for live music in the Tri-Cities.
It’s a Thai place: Dark black walls, low ceiling, Thai-basil daiquiris and spicy noodles heaped in black bowls.
The second Saturday night of each month at the Emerald, you’ll hear Mary Lou Gnoza and her piano man, Stevie Haberman, at the keys.
Sometimes they even play "My Funny Valentine."
Mary Lou wears classic-salon-red hair. At 82, she sparkles. There are rhinestones on her cane and nails.
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Stevie Haberman plays piano with singer Mary Lou Gnoza and sax player Gary Danielson. Stevie and Mary Lou have been playing together for nearly 30 years in the Tri-Cities, Washington.
“He makes me laugh,” Mary Lou said. “And sometimes it’s really hard to sing when you’re laughing but I enjoy it very much.”
Stevie wears specs over a crinkly wink, and his pants rolled in cuffs.
“Well, first of all, our partnership – you know I’m married to the beautiful Deborah,” Stevie said. “So, Deborah’s my wife. Mary Lou is my second wife. She’s my mistress.”
Mary Lou Gnoza broke in with, “Oh stop!”
“Mistress of music,” Stevie Haberman said. “OK.”
“OK,” Mary Lou Gnoza said, shaking her head.
They met in 1996, when Mary Lou was asked to play with Stevie at an internet cafe.
“The door opens and here is this man in a big puffy parka,” Mary Lou said. “He looked about this big, and one of those hunting hats that has ear flaps on it. I'm dying here, and mittens, not gloves, mittens! And I thought, ‘oh please don’t let this be him.’”
“It was winter,” Stevie said, defending himself. “It was winter.”
Mary Lou Gnoza: “I know! Anyway, he says, ‘You’re the voice,’ and I said, ‘You’re the keys.’ He said, ‘What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘More Than You Know in F.’ It went from someone’s playing the piano, to ‘Oh my God, listen to that man play.’ And it was like he was breathing at the same time I was. It’s like we’d been working together for years.”
The couple plays songs mostly from the 1920s through the 1950s – a period of jazz standards often referred to as the Great American Songbook.
The duo has made it through some bitter times, too. Almost 10 years ago in 2015, Mary Lou lost her adult son, Tom. At the funeral, Stevie played.
“It just felt so good, it was so comforting,” Mary Lou Gnoza said. “Here we’re just going on as normal and I don’t think a child should ever die before the parents do. It’s such an immeasurable loss.”
Stevie and Mary Lou keep performing even when it gets tough. Stevie has Parkinsons, but doesn’t shake when he plays.
Mary Lou said in the 28 years they’ve played together, they’ve never rehearsed their act.
Still, outside of music, they don’t hang much.
“I mean, he doesn’t crochet,” Mary Lou said.
“I’m looking forward to my lessons in the rocking chair, when you put me in the rocking chair and I start crocheting,” Stevie quipped.
“For being such good friends, I don’t want to work with anybody else except Steve,” Mary Lou Gnoza said.
These days they have to find other friends to drive them to the gigs from opposite ends of town. Getting there is hard and it’s gotten harder lately.
But once they get up on that stand – they’re in the exact right spot, together.
Editor’s note: Kyle Norris, Justin Chapman, Connor Henricksen, and Ricky James Riddell contributed to this report. [Copyright 2024 Northwest News Network]
