Encinitas composer a focus of third-annual Oceanside Music Festival
By: BARBARA BRILL - For the North County Times | Wednesday, October 13, 2004 12:58 PM PDT ∞
The third annual Oceanside Music Festival returns Oct. 15 in a pared-down program that will include a variety show and two concerts by Chicago pianist/singer Kevin Cole, who returns for his third straight year.
Disappointing attendance at last year's two-weekend, seven-concert festival led organizers to rethink the program and concentrate on what worked best. The festival's most popular attraction during the past two years was Cole, who has been described by Boston Philharmonic conductor Ben Zander as the world's best living Gershwin pianist.
On Oct. 16, Cole will perform the musical program that has been a big hit at the past two festivals ---- George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." And on Oct. 17, he'll perform the "Great American Songbook," featuring a tribute to Encinitas composer Hugh Martin as well as songs by Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter and even a few songs by Cole himself.
The festival opens Oct. 15 with "The Music Box," a variety show hosted by retired Channel 10 news anchor Jack White, who will serve as master of ceremonies and perform magic tricks. White grew up in Oceanside and since his retirement is performing regionally as a magician.
Also featured on the Oct. 15 program will be the Oceanside Society Orchestra, led by Tom Morrow, and vocalists Diane Scholfield, Kitty Kelly, Janet Barton, Bill Stromberg, Terri Neal and Jerry Brumfield.
All performances will be presented at the Star Theatre in Oceanside.
The Oceanside Music Festival
* "The Music Box" variety show
When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 15
* "Kevin Cole Plays Gershwin"
When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16
* "Kevin Cole Plays the Great American Songbook"
When: 2:30 p.m. Oct. 17
Where: Star Theatre, 402 N. Coast Highway, Oceanside
Tickets: $25 for Cole concerts; $10-$12 for "The Music Box"
Info: (760) 721-1101
For the past two years, pianist Kevin Cole has headlined the Oceanside Music Festival with music by the late, great American songwriter George Gershwin. But at the third annual festival Oct. 15-17, Cole will honor another great American songwriter who's still among us, North County's own Hugh Martin.
Martin, who turned 90 this year and lives in Encinitas, is best known for his score in the 1944 Judy Garland film "Meet Me in St. Louis," which includes songs such as "The Boy Next Door," "The Trolley Sing" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which holds the record as the second most-recorded holiday song after Irving Berlin's "White Christmas." Martin was inducted into the Song Writers Hall of Fame in 1983 and was described by author Alec Wilder in his book "American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950," as the "last of the great American songwriters."
On Saturday, Cole will reprise his popular concert program (which includes Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"), but on Sunday, his program will be "The Great American Songbook," with a special tribute to Martin, whom Cole describes as a lifelong idol.
"Hugh is my musical and spiritual guide in what's left of the old, sane world," Cole said in a recent interview from his home in Chicago.
Cole met Martin nearly 12 years ago, when he was directing and performing in a Rogers and Hart revue at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts.
"I'll always remember the day ---- January 17, 1994 ---- when Hugh came backstage to congratulate the cast after 'Sweet, Smart Rogers & Hart,' " Cole said. "It was such an honor and a thrill to meet him and shake his hand. I thought to myself, 'This is as good as it gets.' "
The next day, Cole visited Martin at his Encinitas home, and a musical friendship blossomed.
"At first, I was a little miffed that anyone could be so talented," Martin said with a chuckle. "Kevin is the only quintuple threat I have the pleasure of knowing ---- singer, composer, conductor, arranger and brilliant pianist. Now we're the best of friends. We understand each other and speak the same language ---- music and theater. And we love to laugh and talk."
Since their first meeting, Cole has helped catalog Martin's music, and in turn, Martin has served as Cole's mentor.
"Kevin has grown artistically in a way I have seldom seen. When I first heard him at the piano ... I was dazzled by his pyrotechnics. What flying fingers. And it has surprised and delighted me to find that every year since, I have found in his work greater depth, subtlety and musicality."
Martin has especially high praise for Cole's recently released CD, "Cole Plays Gershwin," saying: "It is the best piano album I have ever heard. It's stunning." And of Cole's singing ability, Martin says: "Kevin is so modest. He had no idea how well he could sing. I was floored. He has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. He truly is one of the great male pop singers of all times."
And Martin should know. For many years he was a vocal coach to such stars as Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Ethel Merman, Eddie Fisher, Tony Bennett and Doris Day. He is writing about his experiences with Garland and his Hollywood and Broadway years in an upcoming autobiography self-deprecatingly titled "Hugh Who?"
But Cole certainly knows who Hugh is, and he appreciates Martin's gifts.
"I never dreamt anyone would ever help me so much, especially someone like Hugh, who has had a great Broadway and Hollywood career. He knows how to pick up the sweet spot in someone's voice. He made the real Kevin Cole come through, and I am honored to be able to play a tribute to him, to give back a little of the joy he has given to me and to the world," said Cole, adding that his heart and emotions are touched whenever he hears Martin sit down to the piano to play and sing. "You don't often get to touch the stars, but I did."
