CLASSICAL PIANIST REVIVES LATE FOLK ARTIST'S REPERTOIRE.

Byline: Fred Shuster

Music Writer

A spectral presence when alive, English folkie Nick Drake has attracted a powerful following in the decades since his death in the mid-'70s.

Drake's pretty melodies and enigmatic lyrics have turned up in TV spots, as fodder for numerous tribute albums and as a touchstone for multitudes of ambitious songwriters around the world.

Now Drake's gentle, carefully crafted music will be celebrated by the virtuoso classical pianist Christopher O'Riley, who tonight premieres "Time Has Told Me: A Nick Drake Tribute" at UCLA's Royce Hall.

O'Riley, renowned for his classical reinterpretations of Radiohead's music, will perform works spanning Drake's three influential albums, including such songs as "River Man," "Northern Sky," "Three Hours" and "Pink Moon," reimagined for solo piano.

"Nick Drake's music and phrasing was very much informed by the nuance and sensibility of jazz," O'Riley, 49, said. "There's a richness in the songs -- and you get the sense there are all kinds of ways the tunes could've gone. That's one of the things that made me want to do this."

During his lifetime, Drake's sad and elegant albums sold only modestly, partly a result of the deeply troubled singer-songwriter's refusal to perform or promote them. Now considered one of the true geniuses of English folk music, Drake, who died in 1974 at age 26 from a perhaps intentional overdose of antidepressants, has influenced many of today's musicians, including Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams and R.E.M., achieving far greater stature in death than during his brief lifetime. The use of "Pink Moon" on a car commercial a few years ago helped revive interest in Drake.

"Nick was not a creature of his time," said O'Riley, who has released two albums of classical transcriptions of Radiohead, one of Elliott Smith and will have a Drake homage in stores in April. "His music existed in spite of his times. His music had little to do with the day-to-day and much more to do with universal themes."

The canonization of Drake is a full-time industry. Along with the music's use in TV commercials and in tribute albums and concerts like O'Riley's, there are two full-length Drake biographies, countless reappraisals in the press, TV and radio documentaries (one presented by Brad Pitt) and a raft of reissues, remasters, box sets and downloads.

During his lifetime, though, Drake sold about as many copies as there are empty parking places at the Galleria. In his new memoir "White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s," American-born Joe Boyd, who produced Drake's two first albums, "Five Leaves Left" and "Bryter Layter," remembers the singer as deeply hurt when the albums were largely ignored.

"He knew he had something special and couldn't comprehend why it wasn't more widely appreciated," Boyd says.

In explaining the ever-

increasing fascination with Drake's haunting songs and doomed-romantic persona, Boyd speaks of a cultlike fervor: "Once you make a convert, it's a convert for life. The circle spreads. I think, in general, you could say his records sell more every year."

Along with his own concert career, O'Riley -- who plans more Drake tributes after tonight's recital at UCLA -- works and performs with the next generation of gifted young musicians as the host of "From the Top," National Public Radio's popular classical music program.

His new album, "Second Grace: The Music of Nick Drake," is set for April release by World Village/Harmonia Mundi. Currently, the pianist is working on a compilation album of material by artists including R.E.M., Cocteau Twins, Tears for Fears, Tori Amos and George Harrison.

"As much as I love Mozart and the classics, there are all these marvelous contemporary composers whose music lends itself to reinterpretation," O'Riley says. "There are gorgeous songs like those by Nick Drake that offer another layer when performed as piano instrumentals."

Fred Shuster, [phone]

[e-mail]

CHRISTOPHER O'RILEY

What: The classical pianist celebrates the music of late British folkie Nick Drake.

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood.

When: 8 tonight.

Tickets: $22 to $42. [phone]; www.uclalive.org.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

- Christopher O'Riley