Pat Curtis, Hampton Roads’ favorite piano man, passed away Monday.
I studied jazz piano with Pat more than 25 years ago. It was under his tutelage that I really learned the theory behind the music that I had been playing for so many years. Unfortunately, even the great Pat Curtis couldn’t make a real jazz piano player out of me. My piano playing had already been corrupted by too many years of gospel music.
When he was playing at the Omni – now the Sheraton – in downtown Norfolk, I often headed over and sang with him. The opportunity to sing with him or his trio, which played on the weekends, was pure joy for me. After he left the Omni, I would occasionally catch him playing at various ventures.
The region has lost a tremendous talent.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
“My piano playing had already been corrupted by too many years of gospel music.”
Better that than the other way ’round.
Josef Hofmann, at the age of 16 accepted as THE student of Anton Rubenstein, wrote that playing ragtime (from which jazz evolved) was actually harmful to the student.
(Sorry, posted before I was done.)
Having grown up playing piano in Norfolk myself, I had a pssing familiarity with Pat. He was a wonderfully talented man.