KCET Hopes Feliciano Concert Boosts Latino Pledges

When Carlos Santana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, he thanked three individuals for the honor: his mother, God and Jose Feliciano.

“I’m very grateful to Santana for that,” Feliciano says. “It’s a very humbling experience for me.”

In a groundbreaking 37-year recording career, Feliciano has moved between English and his native Spanish so frequently--and so well--that he was the first artist to win Grammy Awards in two languages.

That success in fusing elements of Latin, jazz and rock music into a single, distinct musical style helped pave the way for such crossover artists as Santana, Gloria Estefan and Ricky Martin, the current king of pop.

KCET-TV showcases Feliciano on Sunday at 10 p.m. in a 90-minute pledge-night special, “Jose Feliciano: A Legend in Concert.” Recorded during a performance at Lehman College in New York City, the concert includes a range of original material and several of Feliciano’s most memorable interpretations, such as his chart-topping version of the Doors’ “Light My Fire.”

Sunday’s special marks the second time in six months KCET has built a pledge break around a bilingual musical performance--a strategy designed to increase Latino participation in the station’s fund-raising drives.

In March, Vikki Carr played host to “Vikki Carr: Memories, Memorias,” an hourlong salute to Latin American music of the 1940s and ‘50s. Nearly two-thirds of the callers who pledged financial support to the station during the hour had Latino surnames, more than five times the normal rate of support, according to KCET figures.

But Barbara Goen, KCET’s senior vice president of communications and the executive in charge of pledge drives, says specials like the Carr and Feliciano concerts are intended not just to boost financial support to the station “but to increase our service to the Latino community in programming as well.”

Although about 40% of the population of Los Angeles County is Latino, that group accounts for less than one-fifth of KCET’s regular viewership. And because many in that community move easily between Spanish and English, Goen says “it’s very important for us to have components of the show be bilingual.”

That’s not a problem for Feliciano, 54.

“My concerts have always been bilingual, even before it was in vogue,” he says. “I always tried to bring my heritage into [it] so that people knew about Latin music. And, of course, I was doing the other things because I was influenced by American music, especially blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll.”

That combination of influences was apparent in his early recordings in both languages and inspired stylized versions of the Christmas standard “Feliz Navidad” and even “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Sunday’s concert was taped in October, shortly after the Grammy-nominated “Senor Bolero,” Feliciano’s most recent CD, went platinum.

In a couple of weeks, Feliciano plans to release a single, “With All My Heart,” and he’s also completing a Christmas album and two music videos. Next month, he will begin work on an English-language album.

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* “Jose Feliciano: A Legend in Concert” airs at 10 p.m. Sunday and will repeat next Saturday at 10 p.m. and Aug. 21 at 6:30 p.m. on KCET-TV. The network has rated it TV-G (suitable for all ages).