Saluting Excellence

What is the proper way to commemorate the golden anniversary of perhaps the most serious academic music program on the West Coast? A toast and a roast? So it went at the Santa Barbara Bowl recently when avuncular Minnesotan Garrison Keillor came to town.

Generally, Keillor demonstrated his genuine love for music by gently skewering tradition and, with conductor Philip Brunelle’s help, leading the fine Music Academy of the West orchestra into satirical terrain for the Aug. 9 performance.

Who else could have gotten Marilyn Horne, the new director of the academy’s voice program, to join him in singing goofball lyrics on the theme of a family car trip to the tune of Verdi’s “Aida”? Who else would venture “A Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra”? Or spin yarns about the great composers, recasting them as displaced Midwesterners and Lutheran music directors? Only this deceptively mild-mannered voice of America.

For anyone hooked on Keillor’s persona on public radio, it’s still odd perceiving the man in the flesh. A humble “mixed baritone,” Keillor’s has a rambling narrative style on his program, “News From Lake Wobegon.” In Santa Barbara, he followed his characteristic pattern of flowing, jazz-like improvisation. There’s music in his delivery and his outlook.

It was a big weekend in the Music Academy schedule. Keillor’s Bowl show, his only Southern California appearance this summer, followed an impressive staging of Rossini’s frothy comic opera “Il Viaggio a Reims,” at the Lobero Theatre the night before. It had the buzz of a big event in this small city: Opera had arrived, in full regalia.

A Rossini rarity, the opera is a purely comical foray, which grows wearisome by the third act. But it is punctuated with wonderfully absurd moments and handsome melodic turns, realized with proper intentions, focused artistry and, when necessary, loony charms by the young cast.

If this production was any indication, Horne’s presence in town has done wonders for the caliber of voice talent in the program. Here’s looking forward to the 51st year.

Jazz Monitoring: Jazz drummer Tom Rainey, a Santa Barbara prodigy-made-good, used to come back home regularly, but stopped making pilgrimages when his mother passed away a few years ago. That makes his visit this week a special occasion. Hear him lead a band, with pianist Theo Saunders, bassist Chris Symer and saxophonist Doug Webb, at the Jazz Hall on Friday.

Among his memorable gigs, Rainey has played with soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom for years, including on her luminous albums for Columbia in the ‘80s, recently reissued by Koch. And for years, he was in Kenny Werner’s adventurous piano trio.

Currently, Rainey spends a lot of his time working with the respected pianist Fred Hersch. On the fringe end, he also plays with the eclectic quasi-chamber group New and Used, which has two fascinating albums out on the Knitting Factory label.

* Tom Rainey at Jazz Hall, 29 E. Victoria St., Santa Barbara; (805) 963-0404.

Blues Hall: Every once in awhile, the Jazz Hall has the blues. On Saturday, the genre is represented by guitarist Ronnie Earl, whose dynamic show at the club two years ago still has people talking.

As steeped as Earl is in blues culture, he confessed that, “like most people in America, I got the blues secondhand.”

“I was going to see Johnny Winter at the Fillmore East with Edgar Winter, and instead, they had Albert King and B.B. King. I was really blown away by both of them. They were at their peak, just burning. I had never really heard blues like that before.”

He heard it, deeply, and buried himself in the guitar. He played with the Roomful of Blues for eight years before heading out on his own, braving the dangerous commercial waters of instrumental blues music.

Earl has since interacted with many different acts, including the Allman Brothers, whose music he loved while honing his chops in Boston. Gregg Allman makes a cameo on the latest album. “I loved Duane Allman,” Earl said, “He’s one of my favorite guitar players. He really had a happy sound.”

* Ronnie Earl, Saturday at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. at Jazz Hall, 29 E. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. $15. (805) 963-0404.