Instruments of Change

David Abell is on his home turf. Surrounded by pianos of every size and shape, from sleek black concert grands to wall-hugging white uprights, he happily displays some of the current prizes among the black-and-white-keyed beauties in his domain.

“Look at this Bosendorfer,” he says. “Isn’t it something? And what a bottom range it has!”

Then, moving to a large Yamaha, he pushes buttons on a small electronic box positioned on its top panel.

“Listen to this,” Abell says.

A gleaming diode display lights up and the piano suddenly begins to play by itself, keys depressing, pedal moving as a brisk calypso melody comes pouring out of the body of the instrument.

“That’s Kenny Barron,” Abell says. “It’s a recording we made about a year ago.”

The instrument that is reproducing the nuances of the great jazz artist’s every move is called a Disklavier--a computerized player piano. It is one of dozens of pianos crowding the vast showroom of David L. Abell Fine Pianos, since 1957 one of the Southland’s prime suppliers of quality pianos, complete with a recording/rehearsal studio.

Although Abell primarily deals in Yamahas, Bosendorfers and Faziolis, he also has had an active business in used Steinways. And the list of performers who have trekked through his showroom to buy instruments reads like a musical directory: classical artists such as Emanuel Ax, Andre Previn; pop performers such as Stevie Wonder, and members of Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan and the Eagles; and jazz musicians Gonzalo Rubalcaba, George Shearing and Benny Carter. And Hollywood celebrities: from Fred MacMurray, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra to Bob Hope, Tony Bennett and Steven Spielberg. All of which has made the ivy-covered Abell store on Beverly Boulevard a significant player in the Southland’s entertainment history.

And Abell has regularly provided his instruments as the centerpieces for every imaginable kind of musical event. Attend a program at the Hollywood Bowl or the Music Center, at Royce Hall or the Wiltern Theatre, at the Jazz Bakery, the World Stage or, for that matter, at Washington Preparatory High School in South-Central, and a piano from the Abell showroom will probably be on stage. If the event is a charitable enterprise, it’s equally likely that the instrument will be there at no charge to the presenting organization. Abell’s generosity is legendary.

Ready to Enter ‘Semi-Retirement’

But times are changing, and Abell, 69, has decided to move on, selling his company to another piano merchant, Keyboard Concepts, headquartered in Van Nuys, and entering what he describes as “semi-retirement.”

“I’ve been doing this six days a week for so long,” he says, “primarily because I didn’t want to miss any of the great things that were happening here, sometimes completely unexpectedly.

“John Williams came in one day and spontaneously played the Prokofiev Third Sonata, and it was one of the greatest performances I’ve ever heard. If I had heard it at a concert I would have been standing in my chair and cheering.

“Another day, Rock Hudson came in and played the ‘Pathetique’ Sonata, and when David Helfgott was in town, he came in to practice in our studio, and he did some wonderful things.”

But Abell feels that he’s slowing down a bit and that now may be the “propitious time to make a change--a time when it can be done with an orderly transition.”

Dennis M. Hagerty, president of Keyboard Concepts, is well aware, however, of the significant role Abell has played in the Los Angeles music community.

“The last thing I want to do,” he says, “is break something that’s not broken. As it is, the store revolves primarily around David, and those are big shoes to fill.”

And maybe too big. Absent Abell’s constant personal touch, Hagerty instead plans to increase the sales force, streamline the operation and aim at increasing the store’s already excellent profits.

“We want to compete at the quality level that David has established,” Hagerty continues, “but I also want the store to be able to function effectively whether or not David or I are around.”

Hagerty is probably correct in expecting the Abell store--the name will not be changed--to continue to be a major supplier of pianos. But the more unpredictable subtext is what effect Abell’s absence will have upon the music scene in general. And, in addition, whether or not the new management will maintain the same level of beneficence.

According to Barbara Sealy, executive director of Colors United, a performing arts and academic program for inner-city youth, “David fills in the gaps where everybody else drops the ball. In almost 10 years of doing community work, the one thing I’ve always known I’d never have to pay for is a piano. And that’s because of David.”

Music Program to Be Named After Abell, Wife

Washington Prep has particularly benefited from Abell’s largess. His involvement there goes back a decade, he says, but it deepened in 1995 when a fire destroyed the school’s instruments. Abell and the Los Angeles Jazz Society stepped in to help restock the band room, and the music program there will soon be formally named after Abell and his wife, Barbara.

Hagerty notes that he expects the charitable efforts of the store to continue under the new management.

“We’ve actually made similar donations of our own over the past 17 years at Keyboard Concepts,” he explains. “And we’ll have a hard time saying no if anyone calls from a charitable organization.”

Abell, who will maintain a small office at the store to run the recording studio and create discs for Disklavier, also adds that his own charitable work will not abate.

“I have a great interest in doing what I can in South-Central and in trying to help Washington Prep,” he says. “We can’t save the world but if we can help one school then we may be able to move on to help a second school. And so on.”

“What people don’t know about David,” Sealy responds, “are all the individual stories, the times in which he’s provided a guitar for a kid who needs one, or helped a kid out in the summer so he can get back to school, or given a kid a typewriter from his own office. We definitely see him as South-Central’s Angel on Assignment.”

Abell simply shrugs when his accomplishments are mentioned. “Call it white Jewish guilt,” he says. “I just wish that businesses did more charity work. And now I’ll have a little more time of my own to devote to it.”

“And maybe,” Hagerty adds, “we can even get him to find a little time to sell a piano, occasionally.”

Abell responds with a smile and a slight shake of the head.

“I’ve had my ride,” he says. “It’s been an E-ticket ride, a great ride. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”