Fred Miller offers ‘Cole Porter: Lecture-In-Song’ at the Lambertville Library.
By: Susan Van Dongen
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TIMEOFF/MARK CZAJKOWSKI
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| Fred Miller
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Singing and accompanying himself on the piano, Sergeantsville resident Fred Miller makes a living talking about his heroes of the Great American Songbook, like Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers.
Starting out as a sideline to his theatrical producing and directing career, Mr. Miller’s Lectures-in-Song have become so popular, there’s a waiting list of venues who want to sign him up. Each program covers the life story, career and songs of a composer.
"I do libraries, museums, anyone who will have me," he says. "I’ve been presenting ‘Lectures-in-Song’ at the Philadelphia Art Alliance for six or seven years and have had a lot of success with the Hunterdon County library. I’ll be going back to both places next fall. It’s the easiest thing in the world for me because I love the music."
The next hour of music, anecdotes, questions and answers will be held June 4 at the Lambertville Library, when Mr. Miller presents Cole Porter: Lecture-in-Song. He describes the program as the story of an Indiana farmboy turned international sophisticate, who chronicled and reflected his own experience in the café society a lost generation whose wealth and freedom few can imagine today.
Mr. Miller says Porter’s story parallels F. Scott Fitzgerald’s in its tales of globe-trotting self-indulgence, dizzying heights and disappointments.
"As the grandson of a multi-millionaire, Cole Porter was a creature of the jazz age, of that same world as Fitzgerald’s privileged beyond belief," Mr. Miller says. "But Cole also moved in show-business circles, in Hollywood and Broadway. So he had tremendous freedom, no money worries and huge artistic resources."
This is a particularly lively presentation, featuring some of wittiest, best-crafted songs of the 20th century, like "Night and Day," "Love for Sale" and "Begin the Beguine." Many of these gems were written for film and theater classics such as Kiss Me, Kate, High Society and Anything Goes.
It’s an unusual combination of entertainment and education that could appeal to a wide audience. However, Mr. Miller says Lectures-in-Song is especially popular with folks who lived through the "golden age of the American song," coming up in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.
"(Their generation) has a personal connection to the music," he says. "They’re flooded with memories. It’s a wonderful trip for them, a voyage back in time. They remember what was going on when they heard these songs and they can understand them in a broader historical context."
One of the things he addresses in each segment is the phenomenon of the Great American Songbook itself. What is it about this time in American history that produced such a flurry of extraordinary songwriters?
"It’s a good question it’s just one of those amazing historical events," Mr. Miller says. "You might ask the same thing of 19th-century Italy, which gave us Puccini, Verdi and so many others. Why were they writing all those operas? What’s amazing and also a little sad is that we just assumed there would always be Cole Porters and George Gershwins."
Indeed, many singers and musicians lament that they seem to be playing the same standards wonderful music, but they wonder when the "new standards" will be written and look for a new generation of great composers.
"We’ve lost our innocence," Mr. Miller says. "(Music) was always a tough business, but it takes more now to write a commercial hit. Also, the audience changed it used to be the mainstream consisted of adults, but now commercial music is aimed lower and lower, younger and younger. The kids are controlling the music marketplace. And it’s not about the music, it’s not about touching the soul more like bombarding it."
He’s talking about image and celebrity being more influential than talent, a song’s outrage outweighing substance, melody and wit.
"The old songs used to draw you in," Mr. Miller says. "They were so warm and sophisticated. You hope that as young people mature, they might discover older music, but it still won’t be part of their memories. It’s not like the people who have it woven into their ‘fabric.’"
He says Porter is different from many of America’s best songwriters because he was a spoiled rich kid from the Midwest.
"Cole was also the ultimate mama’s boy," Mr. Miller says. "And he was gay at a time when it was daring to be so. He and his wife who was very devoted to him had an arrangement and he lived a very free but tormented life. He was a person on the run, living in this fantastic world of show business. But as time went on, he didn’t have many close, long-term relationships."
Then, in 1937, Porter had a serious riding accident a horse rolled over on him and crushed his legs. The doctors thought he would lose his legs and his wife intervened when surgeons wanted to amputate, knowing her husband’s vanity couldn’t withstand it.
"He said, ‘I’ll die if I lose my legs,’" Mr. Miller says.
Instead, the mishap left Porter permanently crippled and in constant pain, but didn’t affect his musical output.
"He had to have a series of operations, and was never as mobile as before, but he continued to live an active life, traveling and going to openings," Mr. Miller says. "His greatest hits, ‘Kiss Me, Kate’ and ‘Can Can,’ were created during this period. He had this indestructible talent for satire, wit and musical lyricism."
Lectures-in-Song is a natural outgrowth of Mr. Miller’s youthful interests and adult career. He founded Silver Dollar productions in 1987, producing, arranging for and directing numerous cabaret and concert productions in central New Jersey and Bucks County, Pa.
He grew up in Albuquerque, N.M., in the ’50s, with musically inclined parents his father was president of the board for the Albuquerque orchestra.
"I remember being taken to see ‘Gigi’ with my mother," Mr. Miller says. "That kind of music colors my life and I carry it with me."
He studied piano with Ralph Berkowitz, a former dean of Tanglewood and a famous accompanist, who played for cellist Gregor Piatagorsky. Although Mr. Miller’s teachers and parents exposed him to culture, he was discouraged from making a living with music.
"They knew it was an unstable and insecure life and they didn’t think I had the ability," he says.
Migrating East to New York, Mr. Miller says he "floundered around for a while" and then found a couple of great piano bars where he could listen and eventually perform. He also was starting to hear recordings like the Verve classic, Ella Sings Cole.
Living in New York, Mr. Miller studied acting with Geraldine Page and voice with Tony Award-winner Helen Gallagher. Locally, he has studied acting with Penelope Reed at the Lawrenceville School.
"I always had a really good ear," he says. "And although I’m classically trained, I’m not rigidly attached to classical music, which proved to be a blessing playing (standards). Also, I’ve always been interested in history and biography, so all this ties in really well together."
Fred Miller presents Cole Porter: Lecture-in-Song, at the Lambertville Library, 6 Lilly St., Lambertville, June 4, 2 p.m. Free admission. For information, call (609) 397-0275.