Mural of Jazz greats reveals a hidden murder

Words and images by Emma Brown

The artist behind the Woollahra mural of music legends could fit neatly into a Miss Marple plot.

If you’ve ever wondered about the jazz fan who painted the music greats Duke Ellington to Thelonious Monk who gaze out from the side of Hutchings Pianos on Edgecliff Road, his story involves murder, redemption and a mystery that English police couldn’t solve.

Andrew Aiken painted the mural in 1996 which pays homage to the great pianists of the twentieth century including Lennie Tristano, “Tadd” Dameron, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton and one of the artists favourite musicians Nina Simone.

Nina Simone was one of the artist’s Andrew Aiken’s favourite musicians.

Rodney Hutchings, ex-manager of the store, befriended the artist and employed him initially to repair pianos for the family business. He had no idea that the New Zealand-born and Canadian-raised man had killed his former flatmate six years earlier in England before fleeing to Australia.

“He was an artist, so an interesting character but he was sketchy .. something wasn’t right,” he said.

Mr Aiken shared an East London squat with 40-year-old English busker Lawrence McDonagh. He asked the musician to leave and they argued over who had the right to stay.

The artist found Mr McDonagh asleep and bashed him to death with a claw hammer and buried him in the basement. He asked four of his friends to cement the floor, to hide the body, they had no idea what was underneath.

The artist then fled to Australia and came to work for the piano store which was painted pink so with Mr Hutchings they decided to paint a mural.

Jelly Roll Morton has peered out from the side of Hutchings Pianos since 1996.

“Nothing showed that we sold pianos, so Andrew came up with the idea to paint a keyboard at the top of the building and it looked great,” said Mr Hutchings.

The former store manager and the artist chose the murals from pictures in books about jazz musicians. They set up a projector of images and on scaffolding the fugitive completed the work at night over two weeks.

They choose an image of Stevie Wonder to pay homage to Ray Kurzweil as the Hutchings Keyboards store, run by his brother Greg, was the first retail outlet in Australia to sell Kurzweil keyboards.

The instrument was inspired by a bet between Ray Kurzweil and musician Stevie Wonder over whether a synthesizer could sound like a real piano. Mr Kurzwell developed the first sampling keyboard to play any musical instrument from flutes, strings to drums.

Hutchings Keyboards was the first retail outlet in Australia to sell Kurzweil keyboards.

When Mr Aiken first moved to Sydney in 1991 he, with Juilee Pryor, painted the King Street Newtown mural featuring Martin Luther King Jr, the words: “I have a dream” and an image of earth from Apollo 8.

“The mural of jazz legends put the piano store on the map,” said Rodney Hutchings.

The artist was forced to leave Hutchings Pianos after an angry outburst and moved to Picton where he joined the Christian sect – The Twelve Tribes of Israel.

“He snapped one day at the store, he started throwing computers around so I had to let him go”.

The artist confessed to his church group that he’d murdered someone and they convinced him to return to England to give himself up. He failed to do so on his first attempt so two church members paid his fare and accompanied him to London to ensure that he informed the police of his crime.

The English authorities had no knowledge of the murder. Mr Aiken asked for the death sentence at his trial in the Old Bailey on September 12, 1997. He quoted from Genesis in the dock at his sentencing: “In order to obtain a clear conscience I believe anyone that takes a life forfeits his own right to life”.

Mr Hutchings learnt that the artist is back in Canada working in a bakery after he served 13 years in jail. He was released early for good behaviour which included teaching art to fellow inmates, as told by Mr Aiken’s church members.

He is proud of the mural he helped create with Mr Aiken and feels that it really put the shop on the map. The store was started by Reg and Pat Hutchings in 1955, at first the family patriarch taught piano and performed in jazz clubs in Kings Cross.

The images of great jazz pianists such as Thelonious Monk were projected onto the wall of Hutchings Pianos and painted at night over two weeks.

Their daughter Wendy manages the business. The store’s services include tuition, Kindermusik classes, piano repair, maintenance, sales and hire.