Calyssa Keys

My little brother recently graduated from college. The night of his graduation we were reflecting on his accomplishments, when he quipped: 

“Calyssa, one of the things I remember most from my childhood was you playing the same thing over and over again on the piano: Da da Da da Da da Da da.”

I laughed out loud. He was referring to the opening notes of “If I Ain’t Got You,” by Alicia Keys, my absolute favorite artist. 

Music has always been the soundtrack of my life, as it is for so many of us. My love for music developed from my father’s love for it. My mother often tells the story of walking into my father’s dorm room with Michael Jackson’s chart topping and Quincy Jones produced, Off the Wall album blaring from his speakers. My dad is a huge fan of r&b and new jack swing. My mother, on the other hand, LOVES the blues. After all, many of our most beloved blues musicians and entertainers were born, bred and got their start, in her neck of the woods: the midwest. 

For example, my mother’s favorite artist is B.B. King. Her admiration for B.B.’s music and Lucille, the name of B.B’s iconic guitar, is unmatched. Together, they birthed my love for New Edition, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Boyz II Men. Throughout my childhood, I would go through my father’s music collection and listen to New Edition’s Home Again album, Janet Jackson’s Velvet Rope, and Boyz II Men’s Evolution and Full Circle albums.

I have always loved music, but when a new artist hailing from New York City hit the music scene in the spring of 2001, my love blossomed into an enthusiastic fascination. I remember like it was yesterday: I was visiting my grandparents in Hilton Head and was in the car with my cousin when I heard it for the first time: Fallin’. The song was lyrical, fluid and accompanied by the piano. And even though it was soulful with a retro feel, it was also somehow classical; it was like nothing I’d ever heard before. Who was this woman? The video only added to my love of the record. The opening scene of Alicia with her signature cornrows and hoops singing at a black baby grand piano, had me mesmerized. I fell in love and that’s when Calyssa Keys was born.  

See, by the time Alicia hit the scene, I had been playing the piano for a few years. But to be frank, I hated it when I first started. Unlike Alicia who said that “there was no courtship phase, no period of becoming acquainted with the piano, rather the connection was instantaneous, as comfortable and familiar for me as breathing,” that connection for me only happened when I discovered her and her music. For 10 year-old Calyssa, she made playing the piano cool. I began to love playing and did my best to emulate Alicia in every possible way: I requested that my summer braids have beads on the end with the four braids to the front just like Alicia; and I purchased her sheet music trying my best to master it. Alicia is a musical prodigy, so learning her sheet music was no small feat, but she indubitably fostered my love for the piano. I would go on to play the piano for 14 years. I played in my middle school’s jazz band, in addition to playing the flute in the marching band, and dabbling in the saxophone, bass guitar and trombone. 

But the piano had my heart. Like Alicia’s opening track on her debut album, Songs in A Minor, it was the Piano & I.

Growing up, I had an electric keyboard. We moved often and investing in a piano just didn’t make much sense, plus the cost was prohibitive. That electric keyboard was where I learned to play and even after one of the plastic keys broke, I glued it back on and kept right on playing. But how could I be Calyssa Keys without a piano? I set out to change that in the eighth grade and decided to check the local paper. I was browsing through it when I came across the classifieds section, and there it was: a man was selling an upright piano for a small amount! I can’t recall the exact cost, but I believe it was $200 at the most.

My parents called the gentleman selling the piano who agreed that we could come over and take a look. I remember the man having the kindest soul. He explained that his wife, whose piano it was, had recently died of cancer and that he simply wanted to get rid of it because it reminded him too much of her. He decided that we could buy it from him for $50. It was no Steinway baby grand, but it sure felt like one. And I finally had a piano just like Alicia.

Throughout the years, I would play on that piano trying to master Alicia’s music; I never did, but her music would anchor me. I continued to be inspired by her authenticity and message of positivity.

In 2020, we were all huddled in our respective homes fearing the worst. It was at this precarious time that Alicia released her memoir, “More Myself: A Journey.” When my preordered copy arrived in the mail, I dove right in and there was one story that struck me.

In it, I learned that Alicia’s first piano was also an upright. She details that:

“I secretly longed for an upright like the one I’d seen at school. Which is why, on that afternoon when our secondhand piano bumped across our threshold, I felt like I was inheriting a Steinway grand. The upright was dented and scratched and badly out of tune. Mommy said it appeared to be one of those playing pianos that could operate itself, a relic of the 1920s and 30s . . . the yellowed keys were badly chipped in a few places.” 

Wow. My secondhand upright was just like Alicia’s: out of tune and outdated, but we both loved our first pianos just the same.

Twenty-two years after she entered our hearts and solidified my love for music, I had a chance to see Alicia Keys in concert on her “Keys to the Summer Tour.” My idol sat at a beautiful bedazzled Yahama baby grand piano, and performed a two-hour medley of her hits. The performance was enthralling and intimate, with an empowering message. It was absolutely incredible and fitting: she opened with ‘Fallin’ and ended on ‘If I Ain’t Got You,' the song of my childhood; just ask my brother.