Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Coming from a show-biz family, Larry White has been a music man all his life, starting at the tender age of 4.

Leaving Las Vegas

Musician Larry White embraces the simple life in Los Gatos

By Jack Bunting

Early in his career--very early--it looked as if Larry White was destined to be a song and dance man. At the tender age of 4, he was shuffling across the stage of TV's Colgate Comedy Hour with Donald O'Connor. It seemed perfectly normal; White was the third generation of a show-biz family. In those days, his father, David Wolper, was a hoofer onstage in New York. Later, he managed the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. (the well-known producer David Wolper is White's cousin.)

White's heart, however, was not in dancing to other people's music but in creating music of his own. When he was accepted by New York's School of Performing Arts (the school that was featured in the movie and TV series Fame!) as a dancer, he begged his father to let him go back and audition with the music department. The youthful White impressed the school with a performance of a piano piece he had written himself and, to his father's surprise, was accepted in the school's music program.

Music and White turned out to be a good match. Among White's accomplishments: he was the youngest person ever to conduct the 100-piece Berlin Symphony, at the age of 18; at 16, he arranged and produced Judy Garland's last album. At 27, he was the youngest person at that time to ever have been nominated for an Emmy in the field of musical direction (The Johnny Mathis Special). He's also been nominated for Grammys and Tonys, and he has written many TV and movie scores.

Of all the celebrities White has worked with, he particularly liked working with Mathis. "He was always easygoing, very professional and well prepared," White says. "He would bring a little cassette recorder, put it on top of the piano and have me record the music and sing the melody of the song. He then would come back the next day and sing the song note for note, perfectly." Adds White, "He always sang full out every time he rehearsed a song."

He's been a conductor, arranger and composer for the likes of Garland, Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds.

White worked on Garland's last album when he was attending UCLA. "I used to rehearse with her late at night after a long day of classes, and she often would stand behind me looking at the music as I played it, with her hands on my shoulders. Knowing I was tired, she would sometimes rub my shoulders. One night while plucking out the melody to a new song, I got no response behind me. I turned around to find her standing there fast asleep, hands still resting on my shoulders!"

In a career that's taken him all over the world, White once found his way to San Jose as conductor and musical director for the international hit musical South Pacific, starring Robert Goulet, about seven years ago. One of the places the tour stopped was San Jose's Center for the Performing Arts.

Now at the age of 45, White has found his way to Los Gatos, where he recently moved with Margaret, his wife of 12 years. After living amid the glitter and glitz of Las Vegas, the two decided that it was time to simplify their lives. With one daughter in college and the other nearly finished with high school, they chose Los Gatos to be close to Margaret's brother and sister-in-law, Pat and Trudy Esrey, and their two sons, Todd and Erik.

Although White had not been to Los Gatos before, he says, "I knew I loved it right away." Being away from Las Vegas doesn't mean he isn't still writing music for shows there. Just two weeks ago, he finished rewriting the music for the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes' holiday show.

Last week, he was in New York previewing the Broadway show The Great Marvin, a play by Bradford Craig, lyricist for many of Quincy Jones' hits. White wrote the music for the play.

While his music has kept him busy in recent weeks, he's also been busy helping his wife open up her latest branch of The Mortgage Shoppe, a part of U.S. Financial. Since those who compose music these days are necessarily well versed in computers, White is helping to set up computer programs in Margaret's new office in the Pruneyard with partner Bob Sowash.

If White's musical talents overlap his wife's business world, his wife's talents also overlap his musical world through her poetry.

The two met in Chicago in 1985 while both were traveling on business. "At first I was put off by his show-biz air," Margaret recalls. He, on the other hand, says he was captivated by her no-nonsense personality.

Acknowledging that the two are opposites in many ways, sister-in-law Trudy Esrey says, "They fill in the missing links in each other's lives."

At about the time they met, Margaret had just begun writing poetry. Now the two have collaborated on an album featuring her poetry. "Part of the reason we moved was to simplify our lives," Larry says. "Making an album for the sheer pleasure of it reflects our new attitude."

Although White has long been a performer--he did vocals and instrumentals with the 1960s band The Sandpipers, whose hits included "Guantanamera" and "Come Saturday Morning"--he had not done an album of his own before.

Influences on Sundown, the new CD, are soul greats Al Jarreau, George Benson and Anita Baker, artists who appeal to a burgeoning market of music listeners that White calls "new adult contemporary," baby boomers geared to new material reminiscent of the Motown sounds of the 1960s and contemporary jazz.

For White, making this album is less about CD sales and more about taking his lifelong experience in the music industry and creating something of his own. "I'm doing for myself what I've always done for others," he says. The collection of songs communicates the couple's celebration of love and the magic of life together, inspired in part by experiences in Las Vegas. He describes the music on Sundown as "jazz with an R&B flair."

One song, "My Friend," deals with the pain of losing someone to AIDS and was inspired by a close friend, a dancer in the Debbie Reynolds show, who lost his fight with the virus.

One of White's big influences is Dusty Springfield, the 1960s British pop star famous for such hits as "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," and "Son of a Preacher Man." White has conducted and arranged for Springfield, who is noted for bringing the American Motown sound to England in the 1960s.

White says he shares her style of soul in the songs on Sundown. While Springfield is reputed to be difficult to work with, White says he found her "a joy to work with." He adds, "We both share that same level of perfectionism. Everything just flowed."

Sundown has not yet been released, but White sings its songs in various appearances. He enjoys performing in nightclubs and cabarets, including the New Orleans Room in San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel.

Although he's now residing in Los Gatos, White expects to continue spending a fair amount of time in Palm Desert, where he and his friend Peter Marshall (longtime host of TV's Hollywood Squares) provide entertainment for celebrity golf tournaments and other charity events. Among their repertoire: Sinatra's 80th birthday party and the Bob Hope golf tournaments. White also has written for and performed in the Jerry Lewis Telethon for the past 20 years.

A current project in Palm Desert is opening a supper club called Basin Street with some 32 other musicians and performers. Basin Street is planned as the first of several such supper clubs, where live music will be part of the entertainment.

Live music has almost disappeared from shows in places like Las Vegas, according to White. Synthesizers have replaced orchestras; he doesn't conduct music for the Rockettes' show but produces it, records it and sends it to Las Vegas. "There are very few good musicians left in Vegas," White says.

Since moving to the area, he's written music for charity events of a more local nature--fundraisers for the Junior League of San Jose, an organization in which his sister-in-law is active. "Having Larry in the family is special," Esrey says. "I love that he writes for TV and for me, too. He gives our family bragging rights."

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