Meet Hal Ratliff: The Jazz Legend Behind Hollywood Piano Santa Ana! 🎹✨ | Exclusive Interview

today we have another in our series of meet our new Orange County Store staff stay tuned hey everyone this is Glen Tri it's for Hollywood piano and today we have another interview with one of our three phenomenal musicians in our new Orange County location how Ratliff well today I'm very happy to be sitting with one of our three team members in our new Orange County location how rat live hi Glenn thanks for joining me today for this little interview um I've been trying to go through our team here and uh most of our employees companywide are musicians and good musicians and we're really blessed with some incredible Talent uh how this is his first time ever selling pianos and how you're enjoy it so far uh very much I'm enjoying bringing my uh experience and and different SL and style to uh to people interested in piano and helping them find something that that speaks to them yeah that's great you know we as pianists we know so little about our instruments so I'm sure you you've learned a lot about every day yes quite a lot uh I I didn't realize it was so much much to know other than how to play yeah you you know we were talking about this a little bit earlier pianists really don't know much about piano and it kind of cracks me up when people say you know I have a friend who plays the piano maybe I ought to ask them before I buy anything you know just because somebody plays it doesn't mean they really know it like guitar players they know their guitars and many of them own multiple guitars and they know how to change a string and fix a bridge and all that but pianists don't know how to do much on a piano a very small percentage might own a tuning hammer and be able to tune but there's a lot to know and you know it's been a process and we started uh with how back in September going through all of the stuff and you know I guess it can be overwhelming how much there is it was a lot in the beginning and it it sort of gets easier with time experience and just just reading I like to read a lot about Pian and keyboards and stay up on things great so tell tell us a little bit about your background in music when did you start in music and uh how did you starts okay uh I started uh in elementary school second grade taking lessons my older brother showed an aptitude for piano and my parents got a piano and got him in lessons and I of course course followed my old brother uh I I continued through college I majored in theory composition and then I moved to California to be a rock star and how did that work well initially I I got a a gig with the Righteous Brothers and and toured with them I was 25 wow and it was a it was a great eight years how exciting yeah playing big venues and I thought wow this is this is pretty cool this music business this is pretty easy pry easy you just moved to California and you're touring with the Righteous Brothers I I was playing for a woman whose husband knew Bill medlay and he got Bill to come see us playing at the Airporter in in Newport and Bill H wow uh so that was a great experience and then I I quit the road uh to have when my daughter was born okay I started working locally nightclubs uh bars restaurants uh private parties I ended up working at Disneyland notb Farm uh went back on the road with the Grassroots another 60s band band and uh started building my own Studio which I still have and uh that's pretty much where I am today and then playing more uh more Jazz as I've gotten older yeah you're a good jazz player thank you I enjoy listening listening to you play Jaz I still play and it was it's funny you know because we didn't know each other but we had some mutual friends in common where you came to work here and it's a small world in the music industry it is and and and I did most of my work in Orange County so I'm very familiar with this area this location venes what do you enjoy about helping someone so comp I enjoy the most when somebody finds something and you can kind of see in their eyes that that's something that means something to them and and I enjoy that feeling of maybe guiding them in that direction or playing something for them that helped them hear the instrument that uh they end up falling in love with and to to get well that's a very exciting part about uh doing this and helping somebody and seeing the joy you know there are people who have waited all their life to get the right piano and U even though they might have had many I'm one of those people actually it took me to a couple years ago to get the one piano I kind of always lusted after I finally got it it did make a very big difference in my life as a as a composer and and an artist artist and Creator so yeah that that's probably one of the most exciting aspects of this have you found any instruments that you particularly gravitate to and that you know resonate with you uh I love the U the Gran pianos I also really like the bul ones because I I play more like blues and rock and R sometimes yes and I like the uh the punch and the and the tone the way it speaks when you hit it hard uh the Gran is just a beautiful beautiful tone and lovely action yeah the Gran is kind of you know up there it's one of the few pianos it's like the epitome of piano building it's about as good as you get yes I wasn't familiar with it before I worked here uhhuh as a lot of people I find they don't know the name no but they should yeah well you know years ago uh when they initially started importing into United States you know they use the full name of the company which is gr and Stein and at that time the Stein company was owned by CBS who who felt really intimidated by a competitor and they got a US judge to say oh you can't use the steinig name which theyve been using for 150 years in the United States and until the internet they could keep that a pretty good secret but since the internet well it's all over the place you know there's no way to keep a secret there's pictures of the Factory and there's histories of the company and it's it's it's everywhere so although it doesn't say Stein you know it is Gro in Stein and of course the Stein was a guy who came to the United States anglicized his name and was Steinway so there you go and Baldwin you know that that's also one of my favorite values out there the sound the touch you know I'm glad you're able to appreciate that as as a musician oh yeah Quality quality sound and feel yeah and you know it's interesting a lot of uh musicians who were in the pop rock field you know where were Baldwin artists right you know you had Bruce Hornsby you had Billy Joel uh Richard Carpenter B backrack these were these were all Baldwin artists so they picked it for that particular sound and I think the Baldwin company has done a fantastic job of making sure they preserved the sound that that made them famous yes definitely what about digital pianist so yes I I really love the rolling digitals and uh I've had quite a few rolling keyboards back to the 80s I had a Jupiter eight I had all kinds of digital pianos and over the years modules and so forth uh and the uh I love the The Mini Grand of 607 that carry yeah I'm thinking of taking one of those home myself oh well let me let me get my you up you're learning yeah I'm trying you're learning well how it's really a pleasure to have you with us and you kind of round out this team of incredible music we have here in our our new Orange County location Hal thank you so much for taking the time to do this little interview and introduce yourself and uh we're really pleased to have you with us thank you it's my pleasure to be here and look forward to many more years here yes and if you and if somebody you know has a particular inkling for pop rock Jazz Etc country Blues come come down and see how you know he can demonstrate the piano with that sort of thing thanks Hal thank you so I'd like you to hear how play a little bit for you here he is take it away how in [Music] well I hope you enjoyed this video and check out the others that we've made out there please like our videos subscribe to our Channel and comment down below this is Glen tritz for Hollywood piano saying there's no life without music and there's no music without life bye for [Music] now youngan be a panic just a good and