Kennedy Center gala honors greatest performing artists

WASHINGTON – Luminaries from the worlds of music and film were feted by President Barack Obama and a black-tie audience of artists and political heavyweights on Sunday at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors.

Actor Robert DeNiro, rock songsmith Bruce Springsteen, comic writer/producer Mel Brooks, jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and opera star Grace Bumbry were this year’s honorees at the annual awards for lifetime achievement in the performing arts.

At a White House reception attended by the political elite, including Vice President Joe Biden and former President John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, Obama said the five were a living reminder that “the arts are not somehow apart from our national life.

“The arts are at the heart of our national life,” Obama said in remarks aired later at the gala. “These five remarkable performers have helped us sustain and strengthen our nation.”

The president drew his biggest laughs when he praised funnyman Brooks, saying the trials of Jews throughout history were leavened by men like him. “For every ten Jews, God designed one to be crazy and amuse the others,” he said, attributing the remark to the Jewish entertainer.

“I was telling him that I went to see ‘Blazing Saddles’ — when I was 10. And he pointed out that I think, according to the ratings, I should not have been allowed in the theater. I think that’s true. I got a fake ID,” Obama said to laughter. “I think the statute of limitations has passed.”

Obama noted Sunday was Brubeck’s 89th birthday and said his own first jazz concert was a performance by Brubeck’s band in Honolulu, during a rare visit from his often absent father in 1971. “And I’ve been a jazz fan ever since.”

The president said Brubeck told him his service in World War II had forced him “to work the war out of his system by playing some pretty vicious piano.”

Brubeck was introduced by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, who joined other A-list musicians onstage, including Brubeck’s four sons, in a musical tribute to his long career.

“DEFINITION OF A DIVA”

Bumbry, Obama said, was “the definition of a diva in the classical sense, a divine voice worthy of the heavens.”

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