Theophilus Martins is an extraordinary piano player who can often be seen at the famous public piano at St Pancras railway station. He recently found a new way to elevate his performance, which nearly brought the station to a standstill! As the young man was impressively playing a boogie on the keys, fellow YouTuber Camdenmusique approached and started playing a higher melody on the same piano, which really made the jam start cooking.
However, things didn’t stop there. Soon the talented pianist, Jared Nandra, joined the jam, adding a rollicking low-end part to the piece. By now the trio was attracting quite a crowd, with many commuters forgetting all about their next train to watch the jam unfold. The video was a big hit for Martins’ YouTube channel, and has become his most popular upload with six million views and counting.
Martins is a true master of boogie-woogie piano playing, which is a hard-grooving style of blues music pioneered by African-American musicians at the turn of the last century. He lays down such a solid groove and Camdenmusique really elevates the piece by adding another layer of melody while still fitting into the groove.
It was also quite impressive that Nandra was able to keep up with the frenetic pace of Martins’ intense left hand playing and match him note for note on the low-end. Towards the end of the piece, Camdenmusique walked around to the other side of the piano and changed the pace by adding a different style of bassline. Camdenmusique has several viral piano videos on his channel, one of which is a stately duet on the Interstellar theme with pianist Karim Kamar, who joined in spontaneously.
Music lovers gave a very warm reception to the boogie-woogie trio jam on YouTube, adding comments such as “It’s impossible to watch this without an enormous grin on your face. Love it!” and “Thanks to you three for bringing joy to your corner of the world. It truly makes everyone’s day better to witness something unexpected and beautiful, especially when you appreciate how even unplanned collaborations elevate the experience.”
The three pianists were playing on Sir Elton John’s Yamaha piano at St Pancras International. Sir Elton donated the piano after he gave a surprise performance at the busy London station in 2016. The living legend signed the piano before donating it and wrote a message which reads “Enjoy this piano. It’s a gift. Love, Elton John.”
The piano is a popular spot for YouTubers, who have created many viral videos there. Other big names which have performed on Sir Elton’s piano are John Legend, Tom Odell, Jeff Goldblum, and just last year, Alicia Keys. It was a busy year for music at St Pancras, as rock icon Rod Stewart also gave a memorable performance in the station last December, with Jools Holland playing the piano as part of an 11-piece band for the occasion.
If you want to see more extraordinary performances by Theophilus Martins, go ahead and subscribe to his YouTube Channel. You can also follow him on his official Instagram account to keep up with his latest updates. With his remarkable talent in boogie-woogie piano playing, you will surely be captivated.