One night watching TV, seven-year-old Robert Strom saw Fred Astaire for the first time. “He was dancing with Ginger Rogers and I said to myself, ‘he is special.’ And that was the beginning.”
Today, Strom is an experienced author with four books on Amazon, but he has also turned his lifelong passions for music and Astaire into a heartfelt musical tribute.
“I’ve wanted to do this for years and literally said to myself,” says Strom, “‘I’m going to do it by the time I’m 40,’ then, ‘I’m going to do it by the time I’m 50.’ Finally, here I am, 65 with a garage band,” he said with a laugh.
In his own words, Strom is “definitely not a dancer,” but instead chooses to focus on Astaire’s vocal legacy. “Fred introduced more songs in movies than anyone else.”
Among the acclaimed songwriters who penned Astaire’s repertoire are American Songbook legends, such as George and Ira Gershwin (“S’Wonderful”), Cole Porter (“Night and Day”), Irving Berlin (“A Foggy Day”) and Johnny Mercer (“One for my Baby”). Strom includes these and 16 others in his act.
Strom began his authorial career after saying goodbye to his office job several years ago. “I basically babysat a team of 12 sales professionals, and though I liked everyone, I’m a creative person, a theater person, and the job wasn’t my cup of tea. One night I drove home saying to myself, ‘I’m going to write a book.’ That was on the career of Peggy Lee.”
“She was a magnificent storyteller,” continues Strom. “I saw her 60 times in person.” He also ran her fan club and became her assistant in 1990.
Though Lee looms large as one of his musical heroes, “the other is Astaire.” His relaxed, airy and effortless style captivated Strom. Many writers on Astaire have noted how his precise yet fluid phrasing reflected the style of his dancing. “That perfection,” says Strom, “was the result of exhaustive rehearsal.”
Many acknowledge that Astaire revolutionized how dance in movies was filmed, insisting the camera show the full bodies with as few cuts in the sequence as possible, a marked change from the fast-paced editing interspersed with close-ups normalized by the Busby Berkeley musicals of the 1930s.
The band consists of members of the Chabot College Jazz Band with Victor Alvarado on piano, Logan Rassmusson on bass and Jeziel “JR” Rosales on drums. Earlier this year, Strom called up the music department and asked for volunteers to accompany the tribute, not pinning much hope on the request. To his surprise and delight, Alvarado responded and brought the other two members with him.
The band has been in rehearsals every week since May and they debuted the tribute at Manny’s in San Francisco in September. All those rehearsals have paid off. “Our first performance simply could not have gone better,” says Strom, “I expected some stage fright, but instead I felt perfectly at ease.”
Strom and his trio will be performing the Tribute to Fred Astaire four times between now and the end of the year:
Sunday, Oct. 18
5pm
Bay Area Radio Museum and Hall of Fame
2152 Central Ave., Alameda
$28.52 on Eventbrite
Saturday, Dec. 12
2pm
San Leandro Public Library
300 Estudillo Ave., San Leandro
510.577.3970
$20 at the door
Sunday, Dec. 13
3pm
The Back Room
1984 Bonita Ave., Berkeley
510.654.3808
backroommusic.com
$25
