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Friday, December 16, 2011

Alive And Well At Pizza And Pipes - Tom Hazleton

Theme From 2001
Alive And Well At Pizza And Pipes
Tom Hazleton At The Mighty Wurlitzer
Capn's Pizza Gallery - Redwood City, California

2 comments:

  1. I can imagine that the essential kettle drum timpani necessary for this piece to work was provided by Capn's Pizza diners who pounded on their picnic tables at appropriate times.

    I'm sure folks at Christmas will be telling their grandchildren about the good times had at Capn's in the 1960s.

    "And the best part of the evening came when Tom Hazleton played 2001 and we were all ston- er... eating pizza and drinking soda, banging on our tables."

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  2. Capn's Galley Pizza & Pipes (the Capn's Galley was later dropped) was the first chain of pipe organ pizza parlors, though they weren't the originators of the concept. This was recorded at the Redwood City location, the only one with a 4-manual organ (from Seattle's 5th Avenue theatre.)

    For pipe organ history buffs, here's the fine details: The first Capn's Galley Pizza & Pipes opened in Santa Clara in late '62, and had a 3/12 Wurlitzer residence organ. Next came Redwood City with its 4/23 (later 24). The others were Daly City/Serramonte with a 3/15, and Campbell with Buddy Cole's 3/27 Wurlitzer/Robert Morton hybrid.

    Over the years, California had well over thirty-six organ-equipped pizza parlors, ranging from tiny, such as 2/6s like Red Vest Pizza in Monterey, then Pinole, and Pizza Machine in Modesto, to large, like Reginald Foort's "traveling organ" by Moller, a 5/27, and a 4/34 Wurlitzer, in two of the four San Diego Organ Power restaurants (Organ Power #2 with the Foort organ also had a 2/6 Wurlitzer!)

    The concept started with Ye Olde Pizza Joynt (San Lorenzo, which installed an organ in 61 or 62, just before Pizza & Pipes, though the Pizza Joynt was open before 61) and ended, in California at least, with Angelino's in San Jose (3/13 hybrid) which closed in 2007.

    The only pipe organ pizza places still going are Beggars Pizza in Lansing, Illinois (3/17 Barton hybrid, played sporadically), Organ Piper Music Palace in Greenfield, Illinois (3/30 hybrid) and Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, Arizona (gigantic 4/78 Wurlitzer hybrid with a rotating elevator under the console!)

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