Kurt Bestor goes multimedia with his first music video

In the 26 years since Kurt Bestor released his first CD, he's never done a music video. Until now.

Bestor has just released his first — a bright, clever, cool video to accompany his song "Baroque Coco" from his recently released album, "Kurt Bestor and the Collective —Outside the Lines."

"Marketing oneself in music is a really weird thing," Bestor said. "And [I've been] watching some of the younger generation — I am the original piano guy — put their pianos on top of some high places and do some amazing things and make a good name for themselves.

"I don't begrudge them. OK, just a little bit," he joked. "I decided finally that I should do my first music video."

But what to do that wouldn't look like a lot of other videos?

"I kept looking at all these music videos and it was, like, either they've got tons of dollars to spend, which I don't, or they just take a piano and put it out in the middle of the Great Salt Lake or something," Bestor said. "So it took me a long time to figure out what I could bring to this party that has some class, whimsy and some creativity.

"And then you have to have what I call the YouTube, cat-flushing moment. There has to be something to get people to say, 'You've got to watch this.' "

In a series of text messages, Bestor and Metcom Studios president John-David Brewer came up with the idea of using projection mapping in the video.

"If you can get a creative vibe going where you really get into the zone but you're texting, that's a pretty cool thing to be able to do," Brewer said.

"And I had the idea of doing the cubist, kind of Picasso thing and make it kind of whimsical," Bestor said.

The video features the eyes, mouths, fingers and sometimes more of the musicians projected on circles, triangles and rectangles. It's hard to describe, but the effect is amazing.

"Although I'm not sure the musicians are going to talk to me after seeing what they look like," said Bestor, who admitted he felt he had to make the video in order to succeed commercially.

"The music business is so evolving right now that you have to do that," he said. "You have to have multimedia images. You have to capture people's attention for more than 20 seconds because that's about as long as it takes for them to turn to something else."

He lamented that "it's not the music anymore. Unfortunately, now in order for it to be spread virally, it has to have something visual that catches your attention. And I kind of hate that, but it is the world we live in."

Which is not to say that he didn't enjoy making the "Baroque Coco" video.

"I wish I had all the money in the world because I would do this every day of my life," Bestor said. "It was fun. Yes, it took me a long time to get my first one out of the way. But it won't take me very long to get my next one, I guarantee you that."

spierce@sltrib.com

Twitter: @ScottDPierce

A Kurt Bestor Christmas

Kurt Bestor performs his annual Christmas concert, with a band and a chamber orchestra. This year's special guest: The One Voice Children's Choir.

Where • Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City

When • Thursday, Dec. 18, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 19, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 20, 2 and 8 p.m.

Tickets • $20 to $47.50, ArtTix