Charles Williams and his jazz trio hold a soundcheck at Upcycle Piano Craft in Midtown. It’s the first Tuesday of the month and Williams is here to kick off the store’s happy hour concert series.

The pianos in the showroom have been pushed back to make room for the musicians. Several customers have taken their seats on piano benches and a few regulars are gathering.

“Well, Charles brings me here,” says Arnie Pollman. “This wonderful venue brings me here. I believe this is the fourth performance I have attended and they have been absolutely wonderful. The energy from the crowd is great. The music is wonderful. That’s why I’m here and I love jazz. Jazz forever, yeah.

For pianist Stephen Wilson, it’s a chance to relax and listen to the instrument he’s been working on all month.

“I work for happy hour every day, so it makes sense to have happy hour here,” Wilson laughs. “People love pianos and this is a fun hanger.”

Anne Trinkl owns the shop. She and Wilson met years ago while listening to music at a jazz bar. They have been together ever since.

“We love it,” Trinkl says. “It’s like having a big party at your house every month and it’s our favorite thing in the world.”

Beneath the showroom, the workshop is filled with pianos. This is where Wilson spends most of his days restoring old pianos, tuning them, and getting them ready to make music again.

Wilson disassembles a grand piano to install a player piano system. As he claps the instrument, the strings resound in protest. The stubborn keyboard gets him in trouble, but Wilson takes that as a good sign.

“When you can’t take a piano apart, it’s because it’s been put together very well.”

All pianos start in the workshop as soon as they arrive. Each instrument is dismantled, cleaned and repaired.

“An old piano is not necessarily a good piano,” says Wilson. “It’s like the workings of a clock and if we were to compare a piano to a clock, old pianos don’t keep time well.”

But Wilson says he’s not impressed with many new pianos.

“Most pianos made today aren’t as good as pianos made 50 years ago,” says Wilson. “Just like the furniture you would buy from IKEA, it’s super heavy because it’s synthetic synthetic wood. Heavy, dense wood doesn’t project sound as well as real wood, real boards and old trees with a straight and tight thread.

Taking things apart and putting things back together comes easily to Wilson. Before devoting himself to the piano full-time, Wilson spent decades working on Cessna aircraft.

“I probably have more of an engineer’s mind than a musician’s mind,” Wilson says. “I can play the piano and I can play a few songs well. I don’t consider myself a musician, but I consider myself knowledgeable and capable of making and building things, understanding machines inside and out.

Wilson says the key to creating great music starts with a finely tuned instrument.

“Everyone knows that a piano needs to be tuned, but few people understand this relationship between the movement of the keys and the movement of the hammers that allows you to speak with expression,” says Wilson. “So you don’t think about the instrument, but when you perform music, it just comes from your soul to the air.”

Upstairs in the showroom, Charles Williams is about to play his second set. Over the years, Williams has performed all over the world. At home, he plays with the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra. Late last year, Williams was named the city’s favorite jazz pianist at the JAM Musician Awards, presented by the KC Jazz Ambassadors.

“It’s like piano heaven,” Williams says. “I feel very, very lucky to be a part of this. You know, it’s kind of like, just do what I do, you know? And just the very idea of ​​playing with your heart. And that’s all that really matters to me.

The Peter Schlamb Trio will headline the Piano Shop’s upcoming happy hour on March 1 at Upcycle Piano Craft, located at 3945 Main Street in Kansas City, Missouri.