NEW YORK, N.Y..—Irving Fields touches the soul when he plays the piano at Nino’s Tuscany, 117 W. 58th St, a block from Central Park.

It was a mellow Thursday night in late July, 2012 and Fields was dealing out songs like “Sentimental Journey” and “As Time Goes By.”

This was appropriate stuff.

At age 96, Fields was the oldest piano player in New York.
“I’m the oldest piano player anywhere,” he crowed during a break a month before his 97th  birthday.

He turns 98 years old on Aug. 4, 2013.

You might say he plays in the keys of black and Betty White.

Fields is regarded as the father of “The Supper Club Trio” sound in New York City. “A traditional trio was violin, guitar and a piano,” he said. “I pioneered a new supper club trio sound of drums, piano and bass. Because you could play dance music that way. We didn’t play loud.

“I played the El Morocco Supper Club (154 E. 54th St., filled with blue zebra stripes). The Latin Quarter was a nightclub. Supper clubs were more exclusive and more action on the food. Nightclubs were more action on the entertainment. When I was at the Mermaid Room of the Park Sheraton Hotel (1950 to 1968) it was a piano bar, but we had 250 people around the bar. My trio was on a pedestal that turned around slowly so people could see every angle of the piano. I was broadcast on coast to coast radio three times a week on CBS Mutual. From there I went to Las Vegas and played the Sands, the Thunderbird, and the Flamingo.

“I played the Copacabana, I would call that a nightclub because they had tremendous entertainment. But they had great food. At midnight they would have Chinese food because people got hungry from drinking so much. Jilly’s was a combination of a supper club and a hang out. Sinatra went there all the time.”

Jilly’s ran from 1952 until the mid-1970s at 256 W. 52nd at Eighth Avenue. The club was named after the late Jilly Rizzo, who was Sinatra’s best friend and body guard. It was a narrow 20-seat saloon and supper club that also attracted Johnny Carson, Quincy Jones, the Kennedy clan and Marilyn Monroe.
Those are just desserts.

A dinner table anchored with a “Reserved for Sinatra” sign defined the rear of the restaurant. The chairman enjoyed the Chinese cuisine of Chef Howie Yee. He cooked out of a wok in the tavern’s basement and Sinatra always ordered chow mein.

Fields looked around the intimate Nino’s and said, “I would call this an elegant supper club, yes I would. But it is open for lunch. I could never understand why they called them supper clubs. If you have supper, what about dinner? Why don’t you call it a dinner club?

“Maybe supper is a nice name.”

Nino’s is a popular steakhouse around Central Park. Fields performed on a Yamaha piano in front of a framed painting of a cow. Slabs of steaks were in the front window. Fields has always had good luck with food. In 1959 he sold more than 2 million copies of “Bagels & Bongos,” which he recorded with his trio for Decca Records. So, in 1960 he recorded “More Bagels & Bongos” and later the Latin-tinged “Bikinis and Bongos.” Fields even set “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoren” to a Mambo beat.

 

His muse was the Cuban bandleader Xavier Cugat (1900-1990).  “He came to her me and he starts talking to me in Spanish,” Fields recalled. “ I say, ‘I’m sorry I don’t speak Spanish.’ So he says, ‘You are not Cuban? You are not Puerto Rican? You play like a Cuban. He thought I was Cuban because I played authentic Latin music. I was in Havana in 1946 and went crazy about Latin music. I was on a cruise ship. I was on RCA Victor. I recorded ‘Miami Beach Rhumba’ which Woody Allen has in many movies. Then I wrote ‘Managua Nicaragua.’ Guy Lombardo and Freddy Martin had number one hits with “Managua Nicaragua,” which Fields wrote from the appetizing riff of the Cuban classic “The Peanut Vendor,” popularized in 1947 by Stan Kenton.

Fields said he knows thousands of songs and has recorded more than 80 albums. His fans included Barbara Walters, Regis Philbin and Donald Trump. The big-haired real estate mogul delivered a blurb for Fields’ 2012 memoir “The Melody of My Life” ($24.98; www.irvingfields.net.) The Donald wrote in part, “Irving has said that work is a blessing, especially when you like your work. He loves his work……”

“Donald is my friend,” Fields said with New York pride. “He sends me letters. He says I’m his favorite piano player. Tony Bennett comes in. He goes straight to the back and has dinner without any fanfare. I play all his songs. The physical set up of this place is not like doing a show. When I do a show or concert my act is like Victor Borge. I sing, I tell jokes. Here I don’t sing. Who is going to hear it? Most people can’t see me. This is an intimate place. I play requests. This place calls for piano music. My favorite song is not my favorite request. My favorite song is ‘The Pearl Fishers.’ I make the piano sound like a mandolin. I trill it. You think you are in Italy. The Pearl Fishers’ is an aria from the (Georges Bizet) opera.”

Fields was born in New York City. His father, Max, was a carpenter who moved the family to Coney Island when Fields was young.

Fields met his current wife Ruth in 1979 when he was playing at the Granit Hotel in New Hampshire.

“We had 1,500 people coming every weekend,” he said, “The average age of the people were deceased. I was looking for a nice young girl. In comes these two gorgeous blonds,” and he nodded to Ruth, who was sitting across the supper table. “She and her friend Elaine.”

Ruth said, “I was living in the Brooklyn area. I didn’t know who he was.” After Fields’ set ended around midnight he sat down with Ruth and they shared  jokes. “Every time I told a joke she topped me with a better joke,” he said with a smile. “We were telling jokes until four in the morning. It was a pleasure being with this girl.”

 

 

Ruth returned to hear Fields the next night. The Brooklyn native said, “I didn’t know who he was frankly, so I didn’t have time to be impressed. But he was very interesting.” Fields was 63 years old when he met Ruth. Time gets shorter as life gets longer. Do you know that song?

Fields immediately asked her on a 80-day cruise ship gig. She took a pass saying she needed some time. But Ruth offered to house sit the Central Park South apartment Fields has lived in since 1964. “I missed her like mad,” he said. The couple was married on June 6, 1982.

 

Perhaps the best way to sign off on this ode to the Big Apple supper club scene is with another story about food. Ruth said, “Tell him about the cheesecake.” Fields said, “What?” Raising her voice a bit Ruth repeated, “The cheesecake!”

Fields complied and said, “I’m riding my bicycle along the Hudson River. I like to see the ships along the water. That morning I had a delicious strawberry cheesecake with my breakfast at Lindy’s (the iconic deli at 825 7th Ave. at 53rd St.) I thought about that cake all morning while I was on the bicycle. There were speed bumps in the sidewalk. They went ‘bumpety bump, bumpety bump’. I thought, ‘Gee, that’s a nice rhythm.’ So I started writing a melody in my mind with that rhythm. I put cheesecake, cheesecake into the words.”

 

Fields liked the tune so much he recorded a demo. Just as the demo session wound down a black drummer told Fields he did a mean impression of legendary jazz trumpet player-vocalist Louis Armstrong. The New Orleans-born Armstrong also was a food devotee, who often signed his letters, “Red beans and nicely yours.”

“The drummer started singing ‘Cheesecake, cheesecake’,” Fields recalled. “So I go to Joe Glazer, who was Louis Armstrong’s manager. I told him I had a hell of a song for him. He was a rough guy. But then he heard it, ‘Cheesecake, cheesecake’ and asked if I stole Louis Armstrong from him.”

A week later, Armstrong himself recorded “Cheesecake.” It debuted on his 1966 album “Louis” that delivered Armstrong’s crossover hit “Mame.”

The ride has been smooth for Irving Fields, a stylish gentleman who understands that supper is always a nice name.