Having been there himself, composer to give benefit for brain injury survivors.

When composer and pianist Scott Cossu left Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital more than a year ago, he was a man without a past.

He had written 75 songs, but he couldn’t recall one of them. When he played the six albums he had recorded over a 10-year period, it was as if someone else were performing.

Amnesia had robbed him of everything but the last few days he spent in the hospital. He had even forgotten that he had asked the woman he loved to marry him.

“It was bizarre and strange. It was all erased,” Cossu said from his home in Olympia, Wash. “Someone said it’s like something that happens when you drink 10 tequilas.”

Cossu, who was then 38, sustained a severe brain injury when he was hit by a car as he crossed a street in Century City on Sept. 5, 1989. He left Daniel Freeman late in November after two months of rehabilitation and spent another two months at a transitional living center near his home.

Dr. Barry Ludwig, a neurologist who supervised Cossu’s treatment at the Inglewood hospital, said the musician is “among the fortunate people.” Half of the people who receive such brain injuries die, he said, and perhaps only 10% are able to completely resume their interrupted lives.

Although he still has memory problems and will never recall the accident or the weeks that followed it, Cossu resumed performing last spring. He has relearned 80% of his music--a New Age fusion of classical and rock styles--and plans to record a new album in May or June.

On Saturday at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, Cossu and his quintet will give a boost to other brain injury survivors with a benefit concert to provide financial help for uninsured patients through Daniel Freeman and the Southern California Head Injury Foundation. Keyboard artist Barbara Higbie also will perform. Tickets, ranging from $16.50 to $75, will be available at the door.

Joanne Levy, the hospital’s speech therapy supervisor who worked with Cossu, said medical bills for surgery, rehabilitation and care for such injuries can easily exceed $100,000.

“I want to show the world that I’m not retarded,” said Cossu, “that I’m able to survive an injury, get over problems like this and come back and be a more complete and happier person.”

He said that regaining his memory has been a gradual process of talking to friends, family, his wife, Joanna, and fellow musicians. He has looked at old photographs and “anything I have in my past that I can access.”

He said he used to be depressed about his amnesia until Levy reminded him of what he was missing--memories of “the pain, struggle and problems that went with the injury. It made me feel a lot better.”

After the accident, Levy said, Cossu underwent three or four brain surgeries and facial reconstruction at UCLA Medical Center, where he remained for a month in intensive care. In daily rehabilitation sessions at Daniel Freeman, he learned to care for himself, walk, speak, think and memorize all over again.

Cossu said he has overcome much of the paralysis in his right hand, although he has lost most of the sight in his right eye. But he’s grateful that his music has not been impaired. In fact, he has written 10 new songs since the accident. Van Manakas, who plays guitar for Cossu and coached him in relearning his music, said no one knew what to expect the first time Cossu sat down at the piano at Daniel Freeman. “It was fascinating. He couldn’t remember any music whatsoever, but he knew where the notes were as long as I was yelling out a chord or a musical note,” Manakas said. The two improvised a blues tune they named after the hospital.

Said Cossu, “They tell me I started playing piano, but I don’t remember.”

One thing that is different is Cossu’s musical schedule. The customary 90 to 100 concerts a year have been cut to 20, due both to his continuing recovery and a change in values.

“I was a workaholic before but I didn’t know I was,” he said. “I’ve begun to appreciate the non-working side of my life. I appreciate life itself a lot more.”

Said Manakas: “He’s significantly happier. It seems like a little good always comes out of the bad. . . . He could be on the stressed side (but since the accident) he’s almost Zen-like in his acceptance of things.”

What: Scott Cossu Concert

When: Saturday, 8 p.m.

Where: Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro.

Admission: $75 (includes champagne reception); $50, $25, $16.50

Information: 419-8211