We interrupt the Bach for a little jazz ...

By Fred Crafts of The Register-Guard.

Make no bones about it. Pianist Gabriel Kahane is a "rising star" triple threat player - classical, jazz and rock.

Yet, as accomplished as the 22-year-old recent graduate of Brown University is in those genres, his real passion lies in songwriting.

"I don't want to sell myself as the great hope for American song, but that's what I'm trying to do," says Kahane, who describes his material as "somewhere between Shostakovich and Rufus Wainwright."

"Song is something that's really important to me - finding ways to really stretch American song, trying to find a richer harmonic and melodic language."

Kahane will be a member of a jazz combo - which will include his pianist father, Jeffrey Kahane, and trumpeteer-vocalist Guy Few - to perform some of the finest jazz and pop songs in an ``American Songbook'' concert on June 30 at the Oregon Bach Festival.

Jeffrey Kahane and Few stepped in after Thomas Quasthoff canceled due to bronchitis. Also performing the jazz set will be Richard Todd on French horn, Forrest Moyer on bass and Alan Tarpinian on drums.

The younger Kahane's interest also lies beyond those songs to be featured in "American Songbook." He's interested in songs rich in language and texture, such as the ones written by Wainwright and Ryan Adams. Songs like that, he says, may be the indirect savior of classical music because they draw young audiences into the concert halls for one type of music that may end up hooking them on another.

"Instrumental music poses a challenge to young people," Kahane says. "But if you can offer songs that are challenging harmonically but have some sort of universal element that everyone can connect to that's another way to go about creating a bigger audience."

Kahane is writing songs. And people are taking notice.

He won the 2002 Kennedy Center ACTF Musical Theatre Award for the musical "Straight Man," which he wrote with Thomas Beatty.

But he is also a young man of talents that often pull him in many directions.

As a jazz pianist, he has appeared with Grammy nominee Karrin Allyson at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, where he also appeared as soloist with the festival orchestra in the W.A. Mozart Triple Concerto.

As a classical pianist, he currently is performing the Robert Schumann Piano Quintet on a national tour with the Mark Morris Dance Group. And as a rock keyboardist, he is a member of the Brooklyn-based rock band The Rinse.

But at the moment Kahane is back at the Oregon Bach Festival, where, as a teenager, he often joined his father.

Having a famous parent can pose an obstacle for their children, but that hasn't been the case for Kahane. His father let him choose his own path, which actually saw him avoiding the piano for periods of time.

"One of the things for which I am most grateful is my father chose to stay at a distance from my musical upbringing. That was sort of both a blessing and a curse," he says. "On the one hand, when I finally returned to the piano I knew it was an impulse that was totally my own. Then, on the other hand, I wish that someone had kicked me a little bit more and made me practice."

As a result, Kahane says he occasionally feels like he is "playing catch up." But, he says "it's been worth it in terms of the lack of screwed-up psychology." He adds, "He's incredibly supportive. He's really been an ideal parent."

True to form, Jeffrey Kahane declined to comment for this article, preferring to let the spotlight shine on his son.

Gabriel Kahane started playing the violin at age 4, then moved to the piano at 7. He showed talent as a pianist but hated practicing.

At age 10, he taught himself the guitar. When he was 15, his father brought home recordings by Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans that hooked him on jazz, which, in turn, led him back to the piano.

"Even now it's a bit of a struggle knowing whether I want to pursue jazz or composing or classical music or a bit of everything," he says. "I guess I'm trying to carve out a path as a singer-songwriter."

Looking back, Kahane sees the choices he has made as evidence that he "avoided" coming to classical music because he was "intimidated on some level (by his father). But at this point I'm not dwelling on that. I feel like I'm on a clear path of my own, and he's on his path.

"We're both very proud of each other."