Ricardo Scales has earned the nickname "the Black Liberace" for his skill and versatility as a pianist as well as his flashy on-stage attire. He began playing at the age of seven, and at eleven he was studying with Lillian Hargehead, founder of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. An accident paralyzed his left hand when he was 19, severing cords and leaving three fingers curling into his palm. Devising his own forms of therapy, Scales regained use of his left hand after several years, and became a star in San Francisco, playing elegant but spirited music in the city's most exclusive cocktail lounges and cabarets. He issued his first album, Forever Love, for the Bay Sound label in 1996.