Lou Rawls playing at the Pops

Young Chang

Singer Lou Rawls and conductor Richard Kaufman have never worked

together, but they have one thing in common -- cartoons.

Rawls was the singing voice behind Garfield the Cat on television.

Kaufman was music supervisor behind Henry Mancini’s “The Pink Panther”

theme.

Tonight it is Pops music that brings the two artists onto the same

stage at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The first half of the

performance will feature Kaufman, in his 10th season as the principal

Pops conductor of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, leading the Pops in a

tribute to the film scores of Dimitri Tiomkin, including “The Fall of the

Roman Empire,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” “High Noon,” and “Old Man and the

Sea.”

Rawls will perform his hits, including “Love is a Hurtin’ Thing” and

“You’ll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine),” during the night’s second

half. The two performances will open the 2000-2001 Pacific Symphony Pops

Season at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Rawls, who has sung gospel, blues, jazz, soul, pop and country, is at

a loss when asked which style is his favorite.

“Music is my favorite,” he decides.

Gospel is special, though, because it was his first. The Baptist

church in the south side of Chicago was his first stage -- he was 7 --

and from there he moved into the secular field.

“I feel that there are all types of music, why not try to engage

myself in it?” he said. “And you’ve got all types of music lovers in this

world.”

The three-time Grammy winner, with one platinum and five gold albums

to his credit, along with a gold single, insists upon singing songs that

have “input.”

“If I get a song and it doesn’t seem to have a universal theme, like

romance, then I don’t want to mess with it,” Rawls said. “With ‘You’ll

Never Find (Another Love Like Mine),’ anybody can relate to that no

matter what their nationality.”

His voice-over credits include “Here Comes Garfield,” “Rugrats: The

Movie,” and “Captain Planet.” Children’s programming is fun for Rawls. In

his opinion, Garfield is a “cool dude.”

Kaufman, a longtime fan of Rawl’s, said he’ll stick with conducting.

We wouldn’t want to hear him sing, he added. But with conducting and

playing the violin, Kaufman has his hands full anyway.

He said he enjoys conducting the most because he gets to work with

“great” musicians and perform “great” music. About 65 members make up his

average symphony. He can hear every instrument.

“You better be able to, or you won’t work,” Kaufman said.

Besides his work with the Pacific Symphony, Kaufman is in his third

season as principal Pops conductor of the Dallas Symphony and has

conducted symphony orchestras throughout the United States.

In 1993, he received a Grammy award in the Best Pop Instrumental

Performance category for a recording he made with the Nuremberg Symphony

Orchestra. He has also served as music director and conductor for

theatrical productions and for the Los Angeles and San Francisco civic

light operas.

As a violinist, Kaufman has performed on film and television scores,

including “Jaws.”

He and the Pacific Symphony Pops rehearsed for exactly 50 minutes

Friday afternoon -- the amount of time allotted them. When asked if

that’s enough, he said, “It has to be.”

FYI:

* WHAT: Lou Rawls opens the Pacific Symphony Pops 2000-2001 season

* WHERE: The Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center

Drive, Costa Mesa

* WHEN: 8 p.m. today

* COST: $14 to $72

* CALL: (714) 755-5799