Fred Astaire’s grandson drums up a concert in SLO

In his top hat, bow tie and tuxedo, dance virtuoso Fred Astaire was the picture of effortless elegance.

But while Astaire glided across the silver screen without ever visibly breaking a sweat, his grandson believes in the power of perspiration.

“When you’re performing a solo piece, you should be sweating at the end of it,” percussionist John Astaire said. “You shouldn’t be looking like you just took a walk smelling the roses.”

Astaire, who teaches percussion at Cal Poly, is sure to work up a sweat during his Nov. 4 recital at the Performing Arts Center in San Luis Obispo. The program finds him tackling some of the most demanding pieces in the contemporary percussion repertoire.

“You’ve got to move around. You have to actively engage the instrument,” Astaire, 43, said. “The music’s not being fully translated unless you’re fully committing to the performance of it.”

The son of rancher Fred Astaire Jr. and landscape painter and photographer Carol Astaire, John Astaire was 7 or 8 when his family moved from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo.

Unlike his sister Johanna, who performed with San Luis Obispo’s Gilbert Reed Ballet, John Astaire channeled his natural talent for rhythm into music, not dance.

“I was 2 years old hitting pots and pans with spoons,” he explained. “Percussion kind of chose me; I didn’t choose it.”

Astaire graduated from San Luis Obispo High School in 1991 with plans to pursue a career as a rock drummer. Then, while earning a bachelor’s degree in music at Cal Poly, he encountered Los Angeles session musician Ken Watson, who opened the young musician’s eyes to the wider world of percussion.

“It’s stimulating and rewarding to play as much music as you can that involves percussion,” said Astaire, who earned his doctorate degree in percussion performance at Indiana University.

In addition to his work at Cal Poly, he is the principal timpani player of the San Luis Obispo Symphony and serves as percussion coach for the San Luis Obispo Youth Symphony.

One reason he loves percussion, he said, is the wide variety of instruments that fall into that category, from cymbals and chimes to bongos, marimba and timpani.

Astaire wrote his doctoral dissertation on the cimbalom, a hammered dulcimer first played by the Romani people of Hungary. Popularized outside of Eastern Europe by composers such as Zoltán Kodály and Igor Stravinsky, the exotic-sounding instrument can be heard on film and television scores by the likes of John Williams, Howard Shore and Hans Zimmer.

“That’s probably the strangest instrument I play,” acknowledged Astaire, although he’s been known to incorporate oil cans, spring coils and other found metal objects into his music.

Whether walking through hardware stores or junkyards, he said, “I’m always keeping my ears out.”

Astaire’s upcoming recital will find the percussionist dipping deep into his instrumental box of tricks.

According to Astaire, the program ranges from “very meditative and pretty” pieces such as “Kyoto, When in Rain” and “Ocean” by Mutsuhito Ogino to more aggressive works such as “Rebonds” by Iannis Xenakis.

The centerpiece of the concert is “Towards the Precipice” by Poul Ruders, a massive, intense solo piece that features a variety of drums.

“There’s a physical component to this music that you need to allow preparation time for,” much like a dancer, Astaire said. “I’m standing when I’m playing this stuff. I’m moving around.”

In addition to endurance, strength and athleticism, he added, percussionists need to project a confident attitude.

“A lot of classical players are too refined and too polite when they approach (this music). I can transcend that when I need to,” Astaire said. “The rock music side of me allows me to take these pieces up a notch.”

Astaire emphasized that there’s an aspect to his performance that has to be experienced in person.

“There’s a primal power and a rawness to (drumming) that when you see it live is powerful, and that gets lost if you’re listening to a recording,” he said, a sensation that resonates in one’s bones. “You can feel it, for sure.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 9:51 AM with the headline "Fred Astaire’s grandson drums up a concert in SLO."