Three Tulsans whose music made their lives

BY NICOLE MARSHALL MIDDLETON World Scene Writer
Sunday, September 02, 2012
9/02/12 at 3:54 AM

They romance us with their melodies and entertain us with their charm.

They are the musicians who make an evening out memorable with the songs we long to hear.

Besides a nod at the tip jar, a quick request for a favorite tune, we may never meet the crooner at our favorite restaurants and clubs.

Or know just how much we - their listeners - mean to them.

"I will live forever or die trying," local musician Heinz Christian would say.

Gentle and gracious, charismatic yet humble, Christian - always the entertainer - had a way with one-liners.

Battling the cancer that spread throughout his body, he repeated that phrase often. Few who saw him sing and play piano at Bluestone Steakhouse or at area nursing homes in his final years knew he was dying.

Music was Christian's life. And he kept playing until the end.

"I would not change a thing," Christian said, reflecting on his career weeks before his Aug. 3 death. "I have been very fortunate."

Born Heinrich Mayer in Badgastein, Salzburg, Austria, Christian died in Tulsa at the age of 69.

He chose Heinz Christian as his stage name and performed with the likes of Wayne Newton, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. at after parties during the heyday of lounge acts in Las Vegas.

Eventually, Christian settled into Tulsa's select circle of entertainers, playing at many restaurants and clubs.

He was always musically inclined, said his ex-wife, Kristine Mayer. Mayer, the mother of two of Christian's three sons, and Christian remained close friends, and she cared for him with other family members when his health took a turn for the worse.

"His mother encouraged him to try out for the Vienna Boys Choir, but he had relative pitch instead of perfect pitch and he was turned down," Mayer said.

Yet, Christian became an accomplished pianist, moving to the United States in 1968. He wanted to work with computers, a burgeoning field at the time.

But the desire to entertain stayed with him.

"It started as a way to make some extra money and sort of took over," Mayer said. "He didn't read music. He played by ear."

Christian's sons grew up on stage with him, learning how to entertain an audience.

"My dad used to play at the Silver Flame steak house and I would go in with him all the time when I was a kid and I would sing with him," said his son, Forrest Mayer. "We would have our little duets and these choreographed routines.

"Anytime he would sing 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco,' he would stand up on the piano bench to hit this one note. Or, there was this one song where he would hit one note flat on purpose and I would come in and move the piano over a little and he would hit the right key. That was one of his favorite things."

The last year of his life, Christian and Forrest Mayer traveled to New York to see another son, Justin Mayer, graduate from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Justin Mayer, now an actor and director, is currently working on a Broken Arrow production of "The White Liars; And, Black Comedy" by Peter Shaffer.

"He encouraged me to get my first job entertaining at the age of 15, the same age that Dad was when he started," Justin Mayer said. "If it wasn't for him, I would probably be pushing a pencil somewhere."

Christian liked playing Sammy Davis Jr. songs, and he took pride in playing music that touched people.

"It's what kept him coming to work," Justin Mayer said. "At the end, he expressed gratitude and wanted to thank anyone who ever came out to see him. He felt a very personal, deep connection to every person who ever sat at the bar and listened to him."

Christian was diagnosed with Stage IV prostate cancer in 2007, and it metastasized to his bones and other organs. He fought hard, attacking the disease with surgery and medicine.

"They gave me two years, two years ago," Christian would say.

And he kept playing at Bluestone and nursing homes until the disease took over this summer.

"We were hoping Heinz was going to live a little longer, but his health took a quick turn," Kristine Mayer said. "He was very well known here, and I got condolence calls from people all over the United States."

Like his fans, his family will remember him best as the humble entertainer who lived for his music.

"I am fortunate enough to have his piano now," said Forrest Mayer. "And every so often I have found myself going out and playing a little tune and having a moment thinking of him."

Mark Bryan

If ever there was a Tulsa club where you would expect to find a piano bar with a charismatic entertainer, it's the Celebrity Club. With its brass chandeliers, club seats in the bar and deep red decor, the restaurant and bar oozes old-school ambience.

Yet, the man who has played the piano and sung there for more than 20 years has never seen his surroundings. Mark Bryan has been legally blind since childhood.

Traumatic injuries from child abuse claimed his sight, but Bryan prefers not to dwell on the details. He prefers to talk about his heightened senses. And his music.

"I remember seeing grass and trees and colors and then it all went to nothing," Bryan said. "A lot of people think that blindness is darkness, but it is really nothingness. My other senses are heightened, though, smell and hearing."

His interest in music began about the same time he lost his sight, yet he didn't credit blindness with leading him down the career path.

As a child, he lived on the Elwha Indian reservation in the state of Washington.

"There was nothing else to do on the reservation. And I was lonely, so I picked up the guitar," Bryan said. "I was professional by the time I was 14, playing in restaurants and clubs."

He played throughout the country in big ballrooms and entertainment halls alike. By the time he came to Tulsa in the early '90s he was already established in his field; he started playing the Celebrity Club in 1991.

"I love the intimacy. You are playing for people who are often four to six feet from you. They are just right there," Bryan said.

But Bryan describes his weekend gigs as just one facet of his musical career. He's also the director of music at the Unity Center at 18th Street and Boston Avenue, he teaches at Preslar Music and owns his own recording studio.

"I have recorded hundreds of local hip-hop artists at my studio," Bryan said.

Country western, swing, pop, standards, jazz, he loves it all.

"I will also play my own songs, all different kinds of things, styled to the ambience of the atmosphere of the club," Bryan said.

He knows most of the other entertainers in town and he believes there will always be a demand for supper club music.

"It's a treat to have a really good entertainer in a good, classy club. A lot of people come in don't just want to shove a bunch of food down their faces, or maybe they want to hear music while they are waiting for a table," Bryan said.

"There is a certain clientele who will always appreciate this treatment and, thank goodness, they appreciate the music."

Luigi Balletto

There once was a very different sort of Tulsa, to hear singer Luigi Balletto tell his stories.

Balletto moved here in 1965 to open the Camelot Inn, then an upscale hotel at Peoria Avenue and Interstate 44.

"They had just built I-44 and there was nothing south of there. When they opened the hotel, it was the showplace of the entire southwest. There was nothing like it. On the 11th floor, there were suites and they charged $100 a night," Balletto said. "And this is back in 1965."

"For a fact, I know people who lit cigars with $100 bills and it was all because of the oil. It was so unbelievable, the money. It was just bananas. It was wonderful."

Due to liquor laws, customers had to bring their own bottles. But the hotel would rent them a locker where they could store the bottles - for a sizable fee, Balletto said.

That first night at the Camelot, about 100 people lined around the building waiting to get in. But the club inside could only hold about 100 people, Balletto remembers, and those outside likely never got in.

"You had to really know somebody to get in," Balletto said. "It was pure class. The whole place. Tulsa has always been a classy city."

Balletto has played at many restaurants and clubs in Tulsa, such as St. Michael's Alley and Ermelio's. For 15 years, he was the "deli man" at the Albertsons at 71st Street and Garnett Road, and he also produced radio and television commercials.

"When I would sing at the Tulsa ball games, people would come up and say, 'Hey, that's my deli man...' "

Balletto now performs at Las Americas Latin Grill and at area nursing homes and loves every minute of it.

"I do almost 35 performances a month. I quit smoking and drinking and I am a born-again Christian. I'm 75 and my voice is better than it has ever been in my life," Balletto said.

People know him as the "Sinatra singer," but he also likes to perform Dean Martin and songs by his idol, Johnny Mathis.

"In the retirement homes, I do more things from the '20s and '30s," Balletto said. "When I play, "You are My Sunshine,' they really sing along."

When he has a show scheduled, Balletto picks up the phone and calls about 100 fans to invite them personally. There's no impersonal social media needed, he said.

Earlier this month, Balletto mourned the loss of his friend and fellow performer, Heinz Christian.

"I loved him. We worked together about 30 years ago, Balletto said. "He was a fabulous musician and a very nice person."

And like the Camelot Hotel, Balletto said that he believes the age of the entertainer may someday be part of the past.

"There are a lot of rock groups and there are country groups," Balletto said. "But as far as people really entertaining, there is not much of that anymore. I am lucky this is my life."

Original Print Headline: Music Men

Nicole Marshall Middleton 918-581-8459
nicole.marshall@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Heinz Christian is greeted by resident Joanne Pugh before a performance at Emeritus at Tulsa, an assisted living center, in May. Christian, a singer who once played in Las Vegas, died in August. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World

Luigi Balletto performs at Las Americas Latin Grill and Tequila Bar. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World

Standing in the lobby with his son, Forrest Mayer, Heinz Christian checks his hair in a mirror before a performance at Emeritus at Tulsa, an assisted living center, in May. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World

Mark Bryan, a local singer and musician, performs at the Celebrity Restaurant. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World

Joan Lichtenwalter (left) and Jan Blankenship (right) cheer as singer Luigi Balletto sings "Blueberry Hill" by Fats Domino at Las Americas Latin Grill and Tequila Bar. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World

Heinz Christian (right) performs at Bluestone Steakhouse and Seafood restuarant in south Tulsa on April 20. Heinz, a singer who once played in Las Vegas, died in August. JOHN CLANTON/Tulsa World