SALT LAKE CITY — Twice a week in the lobby of the busy University of Utah Hospital, Ed Lueders volunteers his time sitting at the Steinway grand piano there.
"I can't imagine a better thing to do in my retirement," he said.
He likens his jazz stylings of standards to elevator music — "hospital jazz" he calls it — but even a quick listen reveals it's much more than that.
Lueders has been playing piano for more than a century.
On Saturday, Valentine's Day, he turned 103. "It's the best birthday I can imagine," he said.
Lueders insists that he is not performing, but rather just lifting the mood in what can be a rather serious place.
"It's just part of the atmosphere," he said. "I feel when I'm playing the piano, I'm part of all of the lives that pass by."
He can't see his audience or his instrument — just at the edges of his field of view — due to macular degeneration.
"I think of myself as a macular degenerate," he joked.
There are regular Lueders fans. One hospital worker took a break just to catch part of Lueders's set. The woman from the gift shop dropped off two chocolates of appreciation.
For two hours Lueders played selections from the "Great American Songbook," which is 98% love songs. Lueders, who lost his wife more than 10 years ago to Alzheimer's, confides that he has a new lady friend.
"She's on the 14th floor (of his apartment building). I'm on the fourth floor so it's an elevator relationship," he said.
Apparently, Lueders hasn't given up on romance and all that (hospital) jazz.
