Piano man Norval Johnson kept 'em singing

Norval R. Johnson was the piano man to thousands of music lovers he entertained for about 25 years in places like Nicklow's and Jax Cafe. Johnson never sang, but he spoon-fed the words and a microphone to fans, who did their best.

When he played the classic "Pennies from Heaven," people tossed coins as tips in the engraved copper spittoon by his feet. Some inebriates were such poor shots that he kidded them (and protected himself) by wearing a red football helmet with a visor, his wife said.

Johnson, 73, died Aug. 11 from renal cell cancer at a Minneapolis hospital, said his wife, Carol Johnson. She'll remember "his love of people and of music."

Johnson's distinct style was playing piano with one hand, an organ with the other. He played by ear, knew countless songs and could transpose to any key or tempo, according to a Star Tribune report in 1985.

"You could not get him to sing," said Carol Johnson, his wife of 26 years. "The singers always said no matter how off key they sang, Norval played in their key. He could go wherever they went."

She said fan Joanne Frank wrote a poem that included the lines, "I could tell he really cared/About the people round him and the music that they shared./They were the words, he was the music./They were the soul, he was the heart."

Tony Nicklow remembers Johnson's "true smile" and the funny jokes he told at the former Nicklow's piano bar on Hwy. 100 in Crystal. He said Johnson was a great piano player with a large following of loyal fans. He always ended with Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Dream (When You're Feeling Blue)."

Johnson, who grew up playing piano with his father's band in Devils Lake, N.D., donated his body for cancer research, a typically generous act, said his wife. Her husband retired from piano bars in the mid-1990s and began running a janitorial business, she said.

In 1997 Ernesto Rios began working for Johnson, and Johnson taught him how to clean and how to manage the crew of mostly immigrant workers. Rios, 39, said when Johnson had surgery a few months ago, he asked Rios to take over.

"He wanted to keep everybody working," Rios said.

Rios said that after he got a driver's license, Johnson helped him buy a car. He also watched workers' children at his home, entertaining them with his piano playing and McDonald's trips. He treated Rios' daughter like a grandchild and went to her birthday parties at the Rios home.

"I think he was the kindest person I would ever meet," Rios said.