DONATE! Watch Salonline Previous Salonlines
Sunday, October 5, 2025
— a “hybrid” event —
Alex Hassan
piano
A (Ray) Noble Endeavor ??
Once again, this coming Sunday, 7:30PM Eastern, Emerson Avenue Salonistas have lured series regular, Alex Hassan, back to demolish…uhhhh….demonstrate his unique take on popular piano playing between the two world wars.
In store, a new grand fantasy-medley on the supremely romantic melodies of Englishman, Ray Noble; a fascinating, recently acquired 1940 song, Cottonwood Corners, by the ever-intriguing Willard Robison; a short, bouncy medley of tunes from 1931’s film musical, PALMY DAYS.
AND
an elongated segment that he’ll just call a few of “My Favorite Themes”. Alex hasn’t always done medley-fications, and will highlight some singularly gorgeous-to-toe-tapping titles that have appealed to him for…decades.
Soooooo….Betake yourselves, barring sports events or asteroid strikes, to:
Sunday night, and escape current events for at least an hour, with some decidedly smile-inducing pianistics. A regular Zoom session follows the concert–
Until then!
BIOGRAPHY
Alex Hassan has been in total immersion 1920s/30s Tin Pan Alley Popular Piano Styles therapy for over 40 years. A pupil of a pupil of a pupil of a pupil of Franz Liszt (well…it SOUNDS impressive?!), he has been a torchbearer for the melodies of between-the-wars Broadway and Hollywood (and European equivalents), devoting himself more specifically to collecting and resurrecting the great “late Romantic with a beat” popular songs that really never had a chance.
His archival collection of [mostly] popular piano solo and vocal sheet music numbers around 50,000 titles, entirely 1920s/30s. It is a tribute to those heady musical times that there is still so much left to find.
Alex has performed internationally at such venues as England’s Aldeburgh Festival, Husum (2007 & 2015–“Piano Rarities Festival”), Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, the Coolidge Auditorium (Library of Congress), various Manhattan/Baltimore/Washington night spots, and national ragtime festivals. He has recorded prolifically for England’s SHELLWOOD PRODUCTIONS, Los Angeleno label OPERETTA ARCHIVES, and Pennsylvania’s STOMP OFF, and has produced/annotated several reissues of the virtuoso popular pianists of the 78RPM period, for both Shellwood and the Pittsburgh company, RIVERMONT (for which he has also recorded, along with two brilliant singing friends).
If you’d like to receive Emerson Avenue Salon invitations, you can add yourself to the invitation list HERE.