MPR’s Mindy Ratner interviews pianist Kevin Cole, one of the foremost interpreters of George Gershwin’s music, while he is visiting the Twin Cities to perform with the Minnesota Orchestra. In the interview Cole discusses how he became a Gershwin fan at a very early age.
Segment includes music clips.
SPEAKER 1: I was seven years old. There was a late show on a school night. It was the Warner Brothers film. Rhapsody in Blue. And I asked my parents if I could watch it. They said, yes. I did. I had already been playing the piano for a few years, and the music in that film just hit me so hard I had to know more about Gershwin.
And so from there I went to the public library in Bay City, Michigan, my hometown. And the librarian said, well, do you know that one of the best books written on Gershwin, called The Gershwin Years, is co-authored by Edward Jablonski, who's from Bay City, Michigan? So I said, at the age of seven, I'm going to go to New York in one day and meet Ed Jablonski and tell him that I'm from Bay City, I play the piano, and I like Gershwin.
SPEAKER 2: And the librarian said--
SPEAKER 1: Well, I didn't tell the librarian that. That was that private little voice in my head.
SPEAKER 2: I see.
SPEAKER 1: So they don't think I'm crazy. But at the age of 15, I made my first trip to New York. And pulled out the Manhattan phone book, which was as big as I was, and looked up E. Jablonski and gave him a cold call. And in an unchanged voice said, I'm Kevin Cole from Bay City, Michigan, and I play the piano, and I like Gershwin.
And after a few chuckles on his end, he invited me over for dinner. And he and his wife had a little spinet piano there. And after dinner he said, well, why don't you play some Gershwin for me? And at that time, I only played two of the preludes and a couple of the songs. I didn't even play the Rhapsody. And after I got done playing, Jablonski's remark was, well, do you know you sound just like Gershwin when you play? And he said, have you ever heard Gershwin play? And I think my response was, well, how old do you think I am?
And he proceeded to bring out reel-to-reel tapes of radio transcripts of a program called Music by Gershwin that George did for CBS back in the early '30s. And that was the very first time, at age 15, that I heard Gershwin play. And I had to admit that there were a lot of similarities.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER 2: Well, now, if you hadn't heard Gershwin play before and you were just a kid, how did you-- how did you develop this style?
SPEAKER 1: Well, I think early on I had a love for not only the classical music that I was studying in my piano lessons, but also for musical theater and the great American songwriters. Of course, my mother would tell you that since I was born on January 27 and share a birthday with Mozart and Jerome Kern, that it was predestined. And she's probably right.
The technique for one helps the other. And I also am a good improviser and whatnot. But I think with any composer, they leave us roadmaps. And as you probably know, some people are good at reading maps and others aren't. And with Gershwin, I think I see all the detours.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
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