San Bruno’s Eric Shifrin shares his love for music

A man sporting a white fedora sits at the piano, his fingers relaxed, effortlessly touching each note as if the keys are an extension of himself. The upbeat rhythm and cloudy melodies collide together and then break apart again like a mad science that can’t be explained.

His smile is wide, as he finishes the piece he turns to the audience, “You stepped out of a dream,” Eric Shifrin says in a raspy voice during a recorded performance on YouTube, at Bird and Beckett in San Francisco. For those watching, the transformative sounds from his jazz piano are a journey into the past.

His hope is to share music he loves with the community and hope they enjoy it too.

“I am sort of a messenger,” Shifrin, 65, said.

On Monday, Sept. 19, the San Bruno resident will be playing a few of his favorites at San Francisco’s Botanical Garden for the Flower Piano Event that is hosted by Sunset Piano.

Sunset Piano is a collaboration from two artists who promote piano culture. They bring pianos to public spaces such as the California coast, streets of San Francisco and Golden Gate Park and invite the public to play their pianos, according to the Sunset Piano website.

He hopes to share his love for jazz with his audience.

“Every song I am playing, [for flower piano] at one point was my favorite song, you know, something I was obsessed with,” Shifrin said.

Along with his original pieces, Shifrin plans on playing many classic jazz songs blended together.

“Sorta like a medley,” Shifrin said.

The garden is a beautiful public venue because you get to see both young and old people playing, appreciating and enjoying music, he added.

Shifrin learned piano from his mother. From an early age, she showed him the basics and he began taking lessons from a neighborhood woman.

“She showed me some boogie woogie,” Shifrin said.

After that, he was hooked. In high school he would play all day, he became interested in jazz and after school he would listen to Charlie Parker.

“The ’20s, ’30s and ’40s piano was king and Art Tatum was god,” Shifrin said. “One guy I really like, that doesn’t get a lot of credit, was Jelly Roll Morton.”

Jelly Roll Morton’s contribution to jazz was important because his sheet music sounds like improvised jazz, he added. As he progressed, he bought a saxophone and would practice both as much as possible.

In 1984, he had a vinyl record in Japan on saxophone called “Lean Wolf.”

“You see, it’s a collectors item now,” Shifrin said, who chuckled while talking about it.

Shifrin, a multi-instrumental musician, said he started to play piano again because of a job that he landed on a Hawaiian cruise ship as a pianist.

“I worked really hard at the repertoire, I learned a lot of tunes and took it pretty seriously,” Shifrin said.

By 1992, he met a passenger on a ship who lived in San Francisco and he eventually followed them out here. At the time, San Francisco was having a swing resurgence that gave him plenty of opportunities to work. He worked at notable places like the Fairmont Hotel and the House of Shields, one of the oldest bars in San Francisco.

He also plays with a quartet every Wednesday at the Comstock Saloon in San Francisco. Visit sfbg.org/flowerpiano for more information about the Sept. 19 event.

Note to readers: This story has been changed because the spelling of Eric Shifrin's last name was incorrect.

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