The Real Kurt Bestor Stands Up

Local emmy award-winning composer Kurt Bestor is much more than a “Mr. Christmas” icon to blue-haired ladies in their Jesus jammies; he’s more than an assumption. He’s a liberalist, humanitarian, Democrat, humorist, entertainer, ex-Mormon and scooter rider.

Born into a musical family, Kurt has been lucky and grateful to follow in the footsteps of family members such as his grandfather and great-uncle. Just in recent years, though, he has started making his own imprint, on Utah particularly; one not wholly accepted by his family. However, with the support of his Kenyan wife, Kurt can no longer be a “plastic boy, a fake.”
Kurt talks with QSaltLake (he’s a faithful reader, by the way) about 20 years of Christmas concerts, the joy of being a composer and David Archuleta. He also voices his opinion on the passage of California’s Prop 8.

TONY HOBDAY: Let’s go back to the beginning, to your background in music and training.

KURT BESTOR: I don’t really remeber having a background in music. I just remember music being a part of me. Genetically, my grandfather played trumpet with Tommy Dorsey. My great-uncle wrote the “J-E-L-L-O” song for the commercial, which is apropos here in Utah. He also wrote “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” So that’s kind of the genetic component.

My junior year in high school I remember seeing Jaws, and I was sitting there in the theater and it kind of hit me when I heard the great music composed by John Williams. I thought to myself, “that’s a job. Someone got paid to do that. That’s what I want to be when I grow up.” Then right out of high school I got a job on the Donnie & Marie show writing music and playing the trumpet. It was a great gig. Then I went to BYU. It wasn’t a music school in those days but they had a very good jazz program and a great composition program. So I matriculated there. I didn’t quite graduate … I graduated later, but I left school to write music for commercials which led into writing music for television shows and film. So I really didn’t go to a graduate school or academy of music.

I kind of got my big break in TV music, writing for ABC Sports, which I like to call “jock rock.” I also studied at the Sundance institute I was a film composing fellow where i had the chance to work with some of the great film composers of our time. 

TH: What’s your process in composing a musical piece?

KB: Typically what happens is I have a deadline in my head. Like right now I have a deadline for this Christmas show coming up and people are buying tickets and so I better get it done. So that panic tends to spur me on. I don’t have alot of time to sit down and wait for the muses to come. I have a task and I kind of put myself in that place. Then I usually sit down at a keyboard — although I have written a song on a ski lift before — and thanks to computers … I have about six computers that I use to compose. They have strings and brass on them. It’s like a big fancy pencil.

TH: Being honored with writing the Closing Ceremonies of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City must have been exciting. Give us a feeling of the experience you had that night.

KB: I was there composing and taking pictures at the same time. I saw Moby do it, so I was conducting with my right hand and taking pictures with my left because, you know, it was the Olympics. You don’t want to miss out. I felt very, very lucky to be there.

TH: Was it difficult to write?

KB: I kind of had a musical Rubik’s cube in front of me. They said it had to be 10 minutes. Now that’s a long time to sustain a song and not lose [the audience’s] interest. I wrote it with a friend of mine, Sam Cardon, and we decided to use all these different sounds, the sitar and chokachi flute and voices singing in different languages. It had a pan world feeling to it.

TH: I understand your Christmas concerts are huge productions with a lot of people on stage. Give us an idea of what’s involved.

KB: There are a lot of people on stage because the kind of music I write includes some jazz, so I have to have a bass player, drummer, guitarist and percussionist. There’s a little bit of classical mixed in, so there’s a string section, some woodwinds and horns, and then I always have a guest performer. This year it’s Jenny Oakes Baker, she’s a great violinist.

The show is a patchwork quilt of all the styles that I am. There’s a lot of up-tempo stuff. I banter with the audience or tell stories like tobogganing as a kid in Wisconsin, Christmases past, going through tough things in my life, and then I’ll play a song that kind of fits that mood. [This year], 35 to 40 percent of the show is brand new, I’m writing it right now.

It’s a variety show in a way. I tell jokes, but they’re usually accidental. I remember one time I was down in St. George for a concert and I said I’d like to dedicate this next song to the people of Colorado City, and the song was “What Child is This?” And I was laughing and half the audience was laughing and the other half wasn’t. Turns out they were a big group of people from the polygamist place that were bussed in to see the show. That’s part of the fun of performing, just being up there without a net.

TH: One of your most popular songs, “Prayer of the Children,” will be performed by the Salt Lake Men’s Choir at their Christmas concert in December. What is it like to hear others perform your songs?

KB: It is one of the supreme privileges to hear something that used to be in your head, then down on a piece of paper, go out around the world and then somebody else sings their version of it. It’s really an honor. I got goosebumps the other night listenening to the SLMC, I though they were great.
That song has been sung by children’s choirs and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. David Archuleta sang it the other day. He called me up and asked if he could sing it at his concerts. So we went into the studio and he did a beautiful version of it. His voice is really good for that style.

TH: I am now going to hit you up for your reaction the the turnout of Proposition 8 in California and the reaction it has caused here in Utah.

KB: I’m really disappointed that, at this stage in our society … nationwide, there’s a portion of the population who has to sit at the back of the bus, that can’t drink out of the same drinking fountains … and I use that analogy purposefully because we’re — meaning people like you and me — amazed by the fact that there was a time when blacks couldn’t drink from the same drinking fountains. Well, gays, lesbians, transgender people are in that situation. People should be horrified by our behavior right now.
Prop. 8, to me, is a proposition born out of fear. The fact that the LDS Church, of which I’ve elapsed … the fact that they would rise up as they did is disappointing to me. It doesn’t have anything to do with them. I don’t understand and I’m pissed off. I think it’s fear-based and we make too many rules based on fear. We try to legislate fear. There’s absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

In maybe the last eight years I’ve made a point of not being Switzerland anymore. People have probably noticed me getting more politically involved. For a long time I never did because everybody said, “quiet, you don’t want people to get upset, they wont go to your concerts or buy your CDs.” When I hit about 40 I decided I can’t do this anymore. I cant be plastic boy; I can’t be fake. I started getting involved in Democratic politics, which shocked a lot of people. But I was always a Democrat … just kind of quiet about it. I became a state delegate for Obama and went to the convention and attended the caucuses and was a poll judge.

I’ve been pegged as Utah’s John Tesh. My reputation, whether true or not, proceeds me. And people just assume. Q

A Kurt Bestor Christmas celebrates 20 years Dec. 10–13 at Abravanel Hall. For ticket information, visit ­broadwayacrossamerica.com .