POP MUSIC REVIEW : Tesh Entertains With Broad Approach

It follows that the host of TV’s “Entertainment Tonight” would be big on entertainment. So it was no surprise that Sunday, when he appeared at the Celebrity Theatre as a keyboardist, composer and bandleader, John Tesh would work so hard to be entertaining.

Indeed, there were many times during the nearly two-hour show that the music took a back seat to what went on between numbers, and sometimes even during numbers: a constant parade of jokes, monologues, gambits and audience participation routines.

Tesh talked at length about his childhood in Garden City, N.Y.; made a running gag of dropping plugs for his wife, actress Connie Sellecca, and her television series, and even had a list of “top six reasons” ( a la David Letterman) why his violinist, Charlie Bisharat, should return to the stage instead of wandering in the audience.

The sparse crowd responded enthusiastically to everything Tesh did--even when he brought six women out of the audience to sing “Silent Night,” and the weakness of their voicings detracted from what might have been a pleasant performance by the band.

It wasn’t the only time Tesh’s antics worked against him. When he coaxed four couples to the stage to dance to one of his many somber, melancholy themes, they spontaneously began swapping partners, which led to same-sex couples and the tallest woman waltzing with the shortest man. It made for the evening’s most comic moment (even funnier than the sight of Tesh in a flannel nightgown and sleeping cap playing “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” on a valve trombone), but it upstaged what was meant to be a seriously romantic piece.

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At other times, though, the high-jinks indicated that Tesh really doesn’t take himself all that seriously. Introducing his Olympics-inspired “Barcelona,” he recalled the time he was broadcasting from the games and told a worldwide audience: “You’re watching great water polio.”

Humor would do a lot to bring some character to Tesh’s compositions--stately, often pensive things with themes and rhythms that require little from a listener. They’re geometrically tidy numbers, predictably shaped as a crystal, in which trills and other flourishes substitute for improvisation.

Tesh stuck to acoustic keyboards Sunday night (on his recent “Monterey Nights” album, he also plays synthesizers) and his playing--like his hair--was flawless. But he demands so little of himself that it would be a mistake to call him a virtuoso.

To his credit, he surrounded himself with top-notch musicians--Bisharat, guitarist Paul Viapiano, bassist Tim Landers, drummer Chad Wackerman and percussionist Brian Kilgore--and he gave each a turn to shine. He added cellist Nadine Hall after the intermission, and she lent dignity to a series of holiday tunes. But when the ensemble was playing Tesh’s music, its talents were mostly wasted.

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It’s not that his warm, classically influenced music isn’t heartfelt. “Concetta,” written for his wife, was redolent with feeling. But there was a tedious sameness as stately waltzes gave way to minor-key mood pieces with a touch of backbeat. During the performance, one couldn’t help but think that Tesh was well aware of this and was seeking to break the monotony with his comic bits and patter. If so, it was, on his part, a sound idea.