On a recent Sunday, as a mother and her son ate brunch at the upscale Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan, they did a double take to stare at an older gentleman playing spirited lounge-style piano to the otherwise empty dining room.<\/p>\n
Noticing their interest, the pianist, dressed impeccably in a double-breasted blue blazer with a matching tie and pocket square, asked where they were from.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re from El Paso, Tex.,\u201d said the woman, Yolanda Armendariz, sitting with her son, Ethan Ayub-Touche, who is 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cTexas? Well, why didn\u2019t you say so?\u201d the piano player roared. \u201cI love Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that, he started banging out a medley of Texas-themed songs, including \u201cDeep in the Heart of Texas\u201d and \u201cThe Yellow Rose of Texas.\u201d Soon, they were buying his CDs for $20 apiece.<\/p>\n
The pianist, Irving Fields, is 99, but he is still playing and still promoting himself, the way he did as a 14-year-old in the late 1920s, when he would get his band hired for parties with a repertoire of only a half dozen tunes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people would get drunk and dance, and not even notice we were playing the same five or six songs over and over,\u201d recalled Mr. Fields, who has been performing in New York ever since, becoming a fixture in the most exclusive hotels, lounges and piano bars.<\/p>\n
He was recently hired for a continuing engagement in the Park Room at the Park Lane, on Central Park South, working Fridays through Sundays, from noon to 3 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cSteady gigs are getting to be unheard-of in New York these days,\u201d he said. \u201cSo to be hired at 99, I really couldn\u2019t be happier.\u201d<\/p>\n
A news release promoted Mr. Fields as the oldest working piano player in the country, something he admitted would be difficult to prove.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut who knows, I might be the oldest pianist still working steady, in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It was at the Park Lane that he first met Leona Helmsley, a former owner of the hotel, and had the distinction, he recalled, of being bitten by Ms. Helmsley\u2019s notorious dog, Trouble, the famously coddled Maltese who became known as the world\u2019s richest dog after Ms. Helmsley died and left him $12 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I handed her my card, her dog bit my finger,\u201d Mr. Fields recalled. \u201cThe waiter whipped out a Band-Aid and said, \u2018The dog bites everyone.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cLeona said she heard me playing \u2018I\u2019m Just Wild About Harry,\u2019\u00a0\u201d \u2014 Ms. Helmsley was married to the real estate magnate Harry Helmsley \u2014 \u201cand she told me, \u2018I\u2019ll break your fingers if you don\u2019t become my house pianist,\u2019\u00a0\u201d he recalled. \u201cThat\u2019s a true story, and here I am again.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the piano, in addition to his CDs, Mr. Fields displays fliers, including his \u201cSecrets for Longevity\u201d \u2014 No. 13 is \u201cEat four hours before bedtime \u2014 you\u2019ll digest better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before playing, Mr. Fields puts in his hearing aids and parks his walker next to the baby Grand. His big gnarled hands are afflicted with arthritis and he has carpal tunnel syndrome. But once he spreads them out on the keyboard, he plays with a spry spirited swing that seems ageless.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s like I\u2019m giving a Carnegie Hall concert in a restaurant,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only problem is that my fans don\u2019t know I\u2019m here. The place is empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
But after two months performing at the Park Lane, his fans are beginning to find him, including, on a recent Saturday, two young men from Philadelphia: Domingo Mancuello, 22, and Adam Swanson, 23.<\/p>\n
Both were students, and aficionados of ragtime and early jazz.<\/p>\n
Mr. Swanson, a musicology student at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, has become perhaps Mr. Fields\u2019s biggest curator and champion. He owns folders of Mr. Fields\u2019s sheet music and recordings and has memorized and rearranged many of Mr. Fields\u2019s original compositions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe thinks I\u2019m Moses or Jesus or something,\u201d Mr. Fields said during a break, as Mr. Swanson sat at his table.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, to someone who studies American popular music since the 1930s, you practically are Moses,\u201d Mr. Swanson responded. \u201cI looked you up at the Library of Congress, and they have like five files of your music,\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Swanson pulled out an old 78: the first record Mr. Fields ever made, Irving Berlin\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,\u201d which he recorded in 1937 for the long-gone Liberty Music Shop in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got paid $25 to record that,\u201d Mr. Fields said. \u201cRight over there on Madison Avenue, on the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n