Wall Street’s Piano Man Plays His Part in Disrupting Davos Scene
Wall Street’s Piano Man Plays His Part in Disrupting Davos Scene
(Bloomberg) --
The Davos Piano Bar has a new home this year. In some ways it’s exactly the same, while also completely different.
Barry Colson is still at the keys, still cracking jokes. But there are fewer men in suits, fewer $150 bottles of red wine and more tequila shots before midnight. Also, there’s a lot of purple lighting and no ornately carved ceilings.
The change in scenery from the Hotel Europe, where Colson had a 25-year run playing for Wall Street moguls and central bankers at the World Economic Forum, is thanks to Matthew Prince, the co-founder of software maker Cloudflare Inc.
Prince offered to pay him a higher rate to perform at a pop-up location 10 minutes from his old venue, Colson said. The Silicon Valley executive -- who met Colson at the Hotel Europe piano bar -- previously hired Colson to play before his wedding night on Mykonos.
Colson says he’s performing every night except Thursday, when Cloudflare is hosting a private party with singer Jason Derulo. At last year’s party, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s David Solomon -- whose firm led Cloudflare’s initial public offering months later -- took a turn as deejay.
On Tuesday, Colson recalled some highlights of his Hotel Europe tenure: Randi Zuckerberg standing behind him singing, Howard Lutnick boasting about buying real estate firm Newmark Knight Frank in 2011.
Lutnick has yet to make it to Colson’s new digs. On Tuesday he was at the Hotel Europe piano bar, for a party hosted by Anthony Scaramucci, where he hinted he might join “Barry” later.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sonali Basak in New York at sbasak7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Amanda Gordon, Steven Crabill
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