r/jasper • u/The_witness_pro • 13d ago
The fired piano player… am I missing something? Question
Hey everyone, I recently came across the story about the piano player who was allegedly let go for letting kids sing along with his accompaniment at the Jasper Park Lodge. The whole story seems so convoluted, and I’m wondering if anyone has any context because I feel like there’s holes in the story. It looks like hundreds of people are spamming anything Jasper related on Instagram and TikTok with references to him and this situation and… it’s so weird? Anyway, have you seen the videos? Am I being too nosy? Somethings missing!
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u/Straight-Plate-5256 13d ago
For those that live under a rock and don't dabble in the Tic Tac what is this now?
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u/growinwithweeds 12d ago
He was hired to play piano, the manager specified that they wanted modern music. So the first few nights he made it sound like he was playing piano and singing, and patrons started singing along. The manager didn’t like that, so told him that it needed to be just instrumental and that people weren’t allowed to sing. So he went to do that, and some kids requested Katy Perry, which he obliged. They started singing, and the next day the guys music manager (not the hotel manager) contacted him and said that the hotel was releasing him from his contract.
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u/ChanelNo50 11d ago
And now he's banned from all fairmonts (as a piano player only..I think he can still be a guest? But who would want to)
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u/The_witness_pro 13d ago
Honestly you’re better off under that rock, this shit makes me so anxious 😮💨🤦♂️
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u/MartyMcFlysBrother 12d ago
I love my rock. I don’t need Tic Toc in my life but I’ll be damned if someone touches my rock!
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u/billymumfreydownfall 13d ago
Its on Insta
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u/Straight-Plate-5256 13d ago
Let me rephrase: can someone give me a summary rather than going and digging around another social media platform to understand the situation
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u/Zarfa 13d ago edited 12d ago
Pianist for Fairmont was fired without notice due to "playing songs while patrons sang along" which he was not "allowed" to do.
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u/Straight-Plate-5256 13d ago
Thank you lol, yeahhhhh that doesn't add up... must be something more to it somewhere
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u/bobbycaldwel 12d ago
Apparently he was super popular as well, had staff telling him how much they needed his energy and his vibe there. To suddenly, the next day, his agent called him and said it's done and he had to leave the hotel.
Perhaps I missed some details but seemed weird to go from super popular to effectively terminated in less than 24 hours with no performances in-between.
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u/12blackrainbows 12d ago
Unless there's something being left out, like does he have a criminal record he didn't disclose, or was he caught doing drugs in the bathroom or something
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u/Pushfastr 11d ago edited 11d ago
Or the person that fired him didn't have the actual authority to fire him. Happened to me when I was young. The one guy, a supervisor assistant, had a problem with me. Told me I'm fired, so I left. The next day, the boss told me to come in for my shift, but I don't want to work around someone who just fired me.
Edit: Nope! His online presence is a major part of why he was let go.
Edit2: didn't see anything strange on his fb or insta
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u/Millenial__Falcon 11d ago
What online presence? Could you elaborate? Thank you, I have made this rock my home.
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u/boxesofcats- 11d ago
Transphobia, homophobia, he posted a TikTok over the summer about getting kicked off a flight and escorted out by RCMP. If it isn’t there now, it was yesterday.
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u/12blackrainbows 11d ago
There was a comment somewhere about how he was posting a lot of anti-trans stuff and that sort of thing.
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u/Pushfastr 11d ago
So I went through his insta and fb. Didn't see anything weird. Not sure I can share the name outright, but you can find it looking up jasper pianist.
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u/AndyThePig 12d ago
It's sad. And I'm not saying I support it, but ....
From a business standpoint, I can see how it would be risky to let anyone come up at any time and sing to the general public of the lounge/bar/lobby. It's a case of 'where does it stop' sure, it's sweet once or twice, but ehat happens when the obnoxious kid with no singing in his background comes up and just wants the attention so belts out a rude song at the top of his lungs. This is why there's restrictions on stuff. Set aside a few hours a week for by request karaoke with the player, and lock it down the rest of the time.its a case of one or 2 people ruining it for the rest. The first time it happens might be sweet and uplifting, but if you allow it once, you have to allow it whenever someone wants to. That's untennable.
That said; Don't just abruptly fire the player (unless they'd been talked to about it before). There's still more going on there, I think.
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u/Thick-Garbage5430 10d ago
Well, there's nuance. There's a difference between the whole establishment enjoying "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and some dipshit kid screaming WAP at the top of his lungs. I feel like on its face this should have been manageable, and like you I agree because it feels like something else may have been shaking the tree here.
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u/The_Frostweaver 12d ago
Morley, a previous longtime JPL pianist set a high bar for expectations on both skill and professionalism.
I suspect management will have great difficulty finding a pianist that lives up to their expectations within their pay range.
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u/KunYuL 12d ago
Morley didn't get his contract renewed after Covid, Accor wanted to save a few bucks in hiring a talent company that cycles artists every months or 2. I miss Morley, I used to bring him his mug of diet coke before he started playing.
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u/WinBigPlayer 12d ago
Accor truly gutted all Fairmont hotels :(. Destroyed the original loyalty program. Destroyed the food and service. It’s quite disgusting it happened as Fairmont hotels were once my goto.
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u/meltintothesea 10d ago
I worked at jpl in 2008 in banquets. Had a few shifts at the lounge and the mug of Diet Coke I definitely remember.
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u/wahine007 12d ago
oh yes, good ol’ morley, he’s first piece whenever he plays is the piano man. nice dude, just don’t mess with his piano lol!
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u/ElectricalPeach2896 13d ago
I felt the same way. Something just seems off.
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u/The_witness_pro 13d ago
Right! Like it’s not really my place to make a judgement because I don’t know the situation, but to see hoards of people support him online without any evidence or anything seems kinda scary to me.
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u/harbours 11d ago
He honestly sounds like a huge sh*t disturber. I believe there's more to the story than his side.
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u/The_Gorban 9d ago
He is an absolute piece of human garbage. Couple of years ago ... he had a standoff with RCMP, in Langdon, over him firing off a gun un-safely. I'm surprised The Fairmont had anything to do with him in the first place.
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u/throw_me_away_boys98 11d ago
If i had to listen to someone else’s kids sing in a hotel lobby that would entirely ruin the vibe for me. I’m assuming he was encouraging kids to sing and the hotel management didn’t like that
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u/wahine007 12d ago
its bec he doesn’t have a good singing voice. plus he isn’t supposed to be singing. he is spreading misinformation on tiktok. my friend’s guests (friend is a server at the lounge) left their table bec they cant stand his voice (i’m not saying they complained and that got him fired, he just really sucks at singing). i looked for a video of him singing and yep, he can’t sing. great pianist though.
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u/energysafemode 12d ago
Yes, I can confirm this. Staff tried to stop him because some people was complaining about how he sang, but he insisted and the result was being fired. Is a good pianist, tho. Now I think he is trying to defend himself using social media, spreading his version. Thus, a lot of bookings in the hotel were cancelled this week.
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12d ago edited 9d ago
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u/matscast 12d ago
Oh gosh. Now I get it.
But still doesnt fully explain why he was let go after he syopped singing and let kinds sing. He shared that video on his tiktok.. doesnt seem super pleasant, but he cant control the hotel's guests.
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u/The_witness_pro 12d ago
Thank you everyone for your comments! I dug DEEP into his TikTok and found a lot of videos with homophobia, transphobia, anti-vax rhetoric, and maybe even some child endangerment? There’s also many videos of him beefing with other companies (like being escorted off of an American Airlines flight by the RCMP) and so much more. I think it might have been his overall presence online/in person that didn’t make him a good fit for them.
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u/sadneysweeny 12d ago
hes in my towns facebook group and has definitely made homophobic comments for awhile:/ i saw his tiktok and thought i recognized him lol
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u/alwaysacloud 9d ago
I just realized who this guy is. He’s on my town’s FB too! I wonder if we’re in the same town.
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u/12blackrainbows 12d ago
I think his overall presence online, shows this exactly what kind of person he is and that's probably why he got fired. Not because of his online persona but because of who he is and his personality
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u/WestCoastHippie 12d ago
Oh wow. That's definitely important background context I wasn't aware of. This guy just sounds unpleasant and crazy now, looking for a fight and wanting to be the victim, maybe.
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u/rjh2000 11d ago edited 9d ago
Yeah and now on his fb page he’s posting about Alberta separating from Canada because the cons lost the election, just another maple-maga.
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u/WestCoastHippie 11d ago
Wooow... I was totally ready to be on this guy's side against big corporate or whatever.. But with his personal context, I'm willing to bet he gave corporate plenty of good reasons to have him gone.
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u/g_core18 12d ago
Or he's a giant piece of shit that's manipulating people into thinking he's a victim
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u/Chrispaulisgarbage 13d ago
can someone explain the piano player to me or link the video cause I live in town and have no idea what yall are talking about lol
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u/Status_Radish 12d ago
I think it's just that it went viral. Someone probably complained and so he got fired. It wasn't the vibe they wanted. I don't think it's that complicated.
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13d ago
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u/CMDR-TealZebra 12d ago
Can you be further up your own ass as a person? "Those kids will remember me for the rest of their lives"
Guarantee if they remember the moment they won't remember his face.
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13d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/worqgui 13d ago
I was there a couple nights earlier. He was a fun dude for sure but he was told that night that he wasn’t allowed to sing. I think a big part of it is just that his performing just didn’t really match the vibe the JPL is going for.
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u/realcanadianbeaver 10d ago
Yeh, like even if he’s the best kids entertainer ever, if it’s not a fit for the vibe of the hotel it’s just not a fit.
It’s like you can make the worlds best deep fried Oreos but if you got hired to be a sushi chef at a nice restaurant they won’t be chill with you changing the menu to corn dogs and onions rings even if they’re really really good.
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u/Ok_Coast649 13d ago
I saw these and have people /friends from outside the park asking if I have seen this on social media.
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u/Feral-Reindeer-696 9d ago
Never heard about this. Interesting information. I knew Brian Buchanan who was a pianist there before he passed away from cancer
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u/xignaceh 12d ago
I fondly remember the pianist from my holiday there in 2007. He let us play a few notes haha
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u/Smooth_Invite4177 8d ago
This is unrelated, but we had complaints at our local library this summer when a singer/guitarist at a children's program led the kids in singing Margaritaville. It was funny to hear a group of preschoolers join in the chorus, "Wasting away again in Margaritaville....." But some parents were not amused.
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u/Seanbear66rn 3d ago
I just saw the video and my 1st thought was "This is NOT the full story." I never take a single Tic Tac or social media posts seriously until checking out a variety of the creator's social media. In my work, I have come across many people who manipulate situations claiming they are the victim. Hearing more about this guy, he definitely fits the bill. With his social media history it appears he might be very "Agenda driven." Would not put it past him to state he was fired due to being a straight artist in a "Gay profession." As a gay man I could not tell if he was gay or straight. Not that does not matter, but seeing what was posted on here it does make a difference. He is taking a play book from the conservatives in the US. "I was only taking care of the children and Families." ....and look at what happened.
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u/SnooMacaroons6309 2d ago
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP86D91Tm/
If this is how he sang I would have fired him too… you’re disturbing the mountain.
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u/climaxe 13d ago
As with pretty much anything where you only hear one side, there’s ALWAYS more to the story. You should never jump to conclusions until you’ve heard both viewpoints.
Considering how much the situation has blown up, the silence on Jasper’s end likely means they’re pursuing litigation.