Arts Community, Rio Clemente Honor Jerry Vezza

On Sunday afternoon, jazz fans, arts activists and Madison residents gathered at the Madison Hotel in Morristown to honor local pianist, piano technician and restorer Jerry Vezza as The Museum of Early Trades & Crafts' Craftsman of the Year.

Vezza, a Madison resident and founding member of the Madison Arts & Culture Alliance (MACA), received the award in recognition of his work as a piano tuner and technician.

"Sometimes it's a very anonymous job, and a very thankless job, in a way," he said, and then told a story about tuning a piano for Bill Moyers.

"After a few minutes he came over to me and he said, 'What a lovely vocation, to take something that is out of harmony and bring it into harmony.'"

Madison Town Council President Jeannie Tsukamoto read aloud a proclamation making June 6, 2010, Jerry Vezza Day in recognition of Vezza's "dedication and commitment to the promotion of the trades and crafts associated with music and the piano." Tsukamoto also presented him with a citation from the U.S. House of Representatives for his work in the arts and support of the Museum.

The museum Board of Trustees Chairman Allen Black presented Vezza with the Craftsman of the Year award, saying that "Jerry is part of the cultural fabric of Madison."

Vezza fell into piano tuning after college when he bought an old Steinway at an auction and asked a friend for a book on how to fix it up.

"It brought me to my knees," he recalled, saying he realized that, though a pianist, he "didn't know a thing" about the piano.

"The piano is probably the most complicated mechanical device in anybody's home," said Vezza. "There's no machine I can think of that can be 100 years old, which some of my piano customers have, and still work. And some of these have been neglected for 20 or 30 years or more. Not too many machines like that."

After Vezza's speech, he played "S'Wonderful" on a piano belonging to the Madison Hotel, which he himself tunes. Rio Clemente then played "All The Things You Are" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," dedicating it to Vezza and his family in recognition of all they'd endured since Vezza was treated for throat cancer in 2007.

After dessert was served, the two took seats on the piano bench together and played "I Love You" for the guests, delighting the guests and earning much applause when they switched parts mid-song, with Clemente standing and moving to the other side of the bench while Vezza slid over.

Vezza has done several events with the Museum, including performing in last year's Outdoor Summer Concert Series and in the Museum's annual fundraiser, "Wine & Song," as well as being a guest lecturer, along with his brother-in-law, about pianos manufactured in New Jersey. Vezza declared with passion, "The human condition wouldn't be what it is without music."

Other attendees were MACA trustees and members, such as Judy Mullins and her husband Dennis, Rebecca Fields, and former mayor Woody Kerkeslager. The event was emceed by Deborah Farrar Starker, the incoming MACA President. John Leicester also attended, along with Stan and Leanna Brown, former Craftsman of the Year Carmen Toto and Vezza's wife, daughter, mother and mother-in-law.

Guests arriving at the event mingled and took their seats to music provided by a three-piece jazz band which included Neil Ford, Connor Ford and Vezza's own son Alex.

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