Seven Decades, 88 Keys, and a Spark That Never Fades

In a rare and radiant homecoming, Santa Barbara’s own musical treasure Gil Rosas is poised to dazzle audiences once again. At nearly 90, Rosas will glide across the stage and over the keys with the same vivacity he brought to his first gig in town more than 70years ago.

On September 13 at 3 p.m., the Marjorie Luke Theatre will host Seven Decades of the Music of Gil Rosas, a retrospective celebration of Rosas’s extraordinary career. Produced by longtime friend and collaborator Rod Lathim — and sponsored by Lathim and Stevens and Associates Insurance Agency, Inc. — the afternoon promises a melodic tour through the Great American Songbook, with tunes by Porter, Gershwin, and Berlin, alongside classical favorites and a few delightful surprises.

Special guest performers will join Rosas onstage, echoing the elegant nightlife of a bygone era, 50 years ago, when Rosas was tickling ivories and charming locals in candlelit lounges throughout Montecito and Ventura.

Meet Gil Rosas (a 2024 Santa Barbara Independent Local Hero) today, and you’ll be met with a twinkle-eyed maestro who jokes about playing only when his downstairs neighbor is out. “I still play all 88 keys,” he grins, hands dancing mid-air, the same hands that have played their way through history.

Rosas taught himself piano by ear after watching his cousin perform. Recognizing his natural gift, his parents enrolled him with local teachers, leading to his first recital at the historic Santa Barbara Woman’s Club near Mission Creek. He hadn’t yet learned to drive when he began performing professionally.

His talent was enhanced by renowned music tutors such as Lloyd Browning at UCSB and Reginald Stewart, who taught at the Music Academy of the West. While other teens were flipping burgers or delivering newspapers, Rosas was playing the Hammond organ at the Santa Barbara Rollercade, the social hub at State Street and Motor Way, earning $2.50 a night — enough to fund his own lessons.

At just 17, he became the nation’s youngest musical director when he joined the founding staff of KEYT-TV in 1953. “The studio wasn’t finished, so we broadcast outdoors for a while,” Rosas recalled with a chuckle. “The wind made it a challenge for the sound guys.”

From behind the cameras, he composed, accompanied, and improvised musical “punctuation” for early television. He performed live on shows like Beverly on 3 with Hollywood star Beverly Hay, and brought cartoonist Frank Webb’s drawings to life with sprightly tunes on Let’s Draw, a children’s favorite co-hosted by Valerie Webb. The trio captured hearts; fan mail flooded in.

While juggling high school, Rosas kept his musical momentum. He graduated from Santa Barbara High in 1954 and enrolled at UCSB. But campus life was just a subplot to his main story: night gigs at El Paseo, ballet accompaniments, and spirited renditions of traditional Spanish and Mexican music that mirrored Santa Barbara’s heritage.

Back then, Santa Barbara was a seaside gem on the cusp of transformation. The postwar boom brought growth, and the Santa Barbara College of the University of California was evolving into today’s UCSB. Lake Cachuma didn’t exist. But music filled the air — especially Rosas’s.

He played twice-nightly floor shows, joined the Santa Barbara Symphony and the City College Orchestra as a soloist, and charmed crowds from behind countless pianos in town. The Fiesta Bowl on outer State Street near La Cumbre Plaza hired Rosas to play at their piano bar. It was the first of such piano bar gigs, which ultimately launched his career.

Every crescendo has its diminuendo. For Rosas, it was when the draft card came.

Rosas was called to service in Virginia, halting both college and club gigs. But instead of silencing his music, the Army handed him a new stage: the U.S. Continental Band. He played for generals and troops alike, a featured soloist in uniform, proving that his destiny was always to perform.

Seven decades later, Rosas hasn’t missed a beat.

A Life Scored in Melody: Rosas’ Second Act(s)

When Gil Rosas returned from military service in the mid-1950s, he didn’t miss a beat. Back on the West Coast, he settled into a civilian rhythm that quickly became legendary. His first post-army gig: the piano bar at the swanky Somerset Restaurant on Coast Village Road — an elegant haunt where Hollywood glamour brushed shoulders with Central Coast charm.

Owner Harold LaVon knew a good thing when he heard it. He installed Rosas at the helm of the restaurant’s newly built piano bar — the restaurant was previously known as El Cortijo and The Bermuda. During the war years, the place had surged with servicemen, celebrities, and starlets. Now, with Rosas adding his golden touch to the atmosphere, the Somerset’s allure grew only stronger.

It was here that Rosas began to build what would become a jaw-dropping repertoire — more than 1,000 songs, all committed to memory, ready to be summoned at a moment’s notice. And while his formal training runs deep, Rosas held a special reverence for jazz icon Erroll Garner — a pianist who couldn’t read music but could move mountains with sound.

Like Garner, Rosas became a musical virtuoso with a soul.

Seven years at the Somerset laid the groundwork for his next venture — one that would elevate his status from local legend to bona fide celebrity accompanist. In 1968, Rosas joined forces with Paul Vercammen and Otto Berger to open the Olive Mill Bistro at the corner of Olive Mill and Coast Village Roads. From its first night — June 29, 1968 — the bistro hummed with anticipation, buzzing with locals, elites, and stardust.

What followed was the stuff of Santa Barbara lore.

At the Olive Mill Bistro, Rosas accompanied a parade of Hollywood royalty. MGM’s famed tapper Eleanor Powell danced to his tunes. Fred Astaire, ever elegant, kept his dance shoes under his dining table but leaned in close to listen. Donald O’Connor of Singin’ in the Rain fame didn’t hold back — he belted “You’re Just in Love” with Rosas, a duet he once performed alongside Ethel Merman.

“I can’t explain it,” Rosas once said. “Magical things kept happening to me.”

The bistro operated on pure word-of-mouth. “We didn’t even have a marketing budget,” Rosas admitted. But none was needed. Students from the Music Academy of the West would drop in during summer months, serenading diners with operatic arias and showtunes. It became the unofficial post-dinner spot for Coral Casino members, Valley Club regulars, and guests from the Birnam Wood and Plow & Angel crowd.

Harvey Lavan “Van” Cliburn, Jr., a noted American pianist, visited the Olive Mill Bistro and signed one of Gil’s albums “I Love a Piano.” He lamented that he hadn’t brought in one of his albums to sign for Rosas, so Rosas offered him one of his own. Van Cliburn even went as far as to introduce Rosas to his mom and agent and invited Rosas to their dining table. Rosas enthusiastically accepted and enjoyed a friendly conversation for a good 15 minutes.

Eventually, the reality of the restaurant business caught up with Rosas. “I hadn’t had a vacation in four years,” he confessed. So, he sold his share — but stayed on at the piano bench, where his heart truly lived. “My kingdom is the piano bench,” he said.

Those Olive Mill years brought more than stardom. They brought Susan. A portrait artist, designer, and fellow UCSB alum, Susan would become Rosas’s wife and partner in life. With her two children, Adam and Jennifer, Rosas embraced his role as stepfather and, in time, as a grandfather.

“We never got bored with one another, said Rosas, “which is remarkable considering that we spent all day together because I worked at night.” As his love for his family grew, his music, somehow, grew even more tender.

In 1980, after more than two decades in Santa Barbara’s music scene, Rosas made a surprising move: He and Susan headed south to Ventura County. A bit of wanderlust, or perhaps just a change in scenery, led him to the Port Royal Restaurant in Channel Islands Harbor. “I had played in Santa Barbara all my life,” he said. “I just got itchy.”

Within weeks, Rosas was drawing crowds again. “Pouring out classical numbers faster than daiquiris,” wrote journalist Tony Joseph in This Week in 1982. Night after night, four evenings a week and Sunday afternoons, Rosas played to full houses. The Pied Piper still existed; he had simply changed venues.

Later, Rosas brought his melodies to the Pierpont Inn, a historic venue with sweeping ocean views. He played Sundays at Trinity Lutheran Church in Ventura too — his range stretching from sacred to swing.

But Santa Barbara, like an old refrain, called him back.

In 1991, Rosas and Susan returned home, easing into semi-retirement but never far from the keys. The couple leaned into a quieter rhythm — though “quiet” was never Rosas’s natural tempo.

When asked about his favorite songs, Rosas said, “I like music before my era, the popular songs during my era and then a touch of the classics due to my training. The melody of the song’s composer is most important to me. I don’t mind a little bit of variation, but I pay attention to the melody.”

He stopped for a minute, contemplating. “But, if I had to pick one tune, it would be “Someone to Watch Over Me,” said Rosas. The song was a famous Gershwin tune famously sung by Ella Fitzgerald. “It really moves me,” he added.

And, it’s the perfect song as Rosas has watched over the Santa Barbara music scene for 70 years.

This September’s concert at the Marjorie Luke Theatre will mark Rosas’s third return to the storied stage, where he performed in both April and October of 2017 as part of the Center for Successful Aging’s “With a Song in My Heart” series. He played with fellow musicians Tom Buckner, George Friedenthal, Chris Judge, Randy Tico, and Jackson Gillies.

And true to form, this time around, Rosas will interact with the audience as he always does.

“I like being in tune with the audience,” he says with that ever-present glimmer in his eye. “I never play the same thing the same way twice.”

At 89 years of age, Rosas is still proud of his fidelity to all 88 keys. “If there were 98, I’d play all of them,” he laughs.

Gil Rosas may have walked through eras and entertained generations, but his love affair with the piano remains pure. Still spontaneous. Still soulful. Still unmistakably Gil Rosas.

The concert Seven Decades of the Music of Gil Rosas takes place on September 13, at 3 p.m. at the Marjorie Luke Theatre (721 E. Cota St.). The benefit is for the Center for Successful Aging, serving seniors in our community, and is produced by Rod Lathim and sponsored by Stevens & Associates Insurance Agency, Inc. Tickets are $28.50 for general admission and $45/VIP seats and may be purchased at csasb.org/concerts. Tickets will also be available at the door.