Di Anne Price - Singer-pianist Price has easy rapport with bands and fans - By Michael Donahue

Singer-pianist Price has easy rapport with bands and fans.

If weekends haven't been the same since pianist Di Anne Price left the Memphis Marriott, relax. You can go see her at Mallards in The Peabody.

Price plays piano with an impressive lineup: Jim Spake on sax, Tom Lonardo on drums, Tim Goodwin on bass and, on occasion, Richard Boyington on trumpet - the same guys who perform with her on Sundays at the various Huey's restaurants.

"I played with a lot of bands, but you've got to find the one that fits you." Price said. "This is the one. I don't have to tell them what I'm gonna play. I don't have to tell them what key I'm gonna play it (in). I don't have to tell them how I'm gonna play. It's like they feel me and I feel them and I love it."

Price, a native Memphian, has paid her musical dues. Since her first group, The Wildcats, in junior high, Price has played piano all over town, including legendary old places including the Rivermont, the Hilton on Airways and some lesser-known spots: The Burning Spear on South Main and the Blue Stallion on Beale Street, before the street's renewal.

Price was a fixture at the Memphis Marriott from 1987 until her contract ended last year. She played her last show New Year's Eve. Price used to play in the lobby at an acrylic-topped Kawai grand piano just about surrounded by bar seats. "They (the customers) were right up in my face. I was actually the hostess. It was dark. It was intimate. It was wonderful."

Price began playing at Wang's Mandarin House and Lounge at 6065 Park when her nights were cut at the Memphis Marriott. Price, who still plays from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays and 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Wang's, loves the intimate setting at the lounge.

Mallards also is intimate, but, like the old setting at the Memphis Marriott, Price has room for all her fans. "We're right in the window there. We get to see people and they wave to us."

Price, who considers herself a barrelhouse-style player, loves performing ballads, standards and other cocktail music of the '30s and '40s. She also plays country, jazz and a little rhythm and blues.

But she loves to play the blues, too. "I like a little Elmore James. I like a little Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Minnie, Ida Cox, Lil Green. They (the songs) are naughty but cute."

The blues songs she plays aren't the "hoochin' and coochin'" raunchy blues songs."I don't hooch and i don't cooch. But I like to sit down and talk about, 'Will my man be home tonight?' I tell them this is autobiographical. I didn't write the song, but it happened to me. I say 'Now, I can't be the only one this happened to.' I like to have a raport with the audience."

Price sang in public for the first time in October 1983 during a celebration on Beale Street dedicating Phase 1 of the Beale Street renewal project. She sang Home of the Blues, written by her mother, with Herman Green and his band. Her mother, Kathryn Price wrote the song.

Shortly after she joined Captian Phil McGee and the Hottennazz band and became a full-fledged singer-pianist.

In 1996, Price, Lonardo, Spake and Scott Lane on Bass recorded a cassette, "Wild Women," which includes 11 songs. One of them is appropriately titled Blues Have Been Good to Me.

August 7, 1998 The Commercial Appeal