By Carolyn Sackariason
Daily Press Staff Writer

SAMOHI — Mrs. Marcel “Betty” Gentillon, 90, and her granddaughter, Torre, 9, were possibly the oldest and youngest fans of Jackson Browne who joined hundreds of others in a packed Barnum Hall this past Friday, taking in the singer-songwriter’s third benefit concert to fund the arts in local schools.

While the elder Gentillon has only recently become a fan, Torre Gentillon has been listening to Browne since before she left the womb. Her mother, Leysa Gentillon, played 25 hours worth of the singer’s CDs in the hospital, while giving birth to her daughter.

“They told us to bring our own music so we had six hours of Jackson Browne and it just kept playing,” Leysa Gentillon said of her marathon delivery.

Betty Gentillon, who graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1934, returned to her alma mater on Friday night along with her family, which included her son John, Leysa’s husband. The three generations of Gentillons showed up at Barnum Hall for another live performance from their favorite musician, among the throngs shelling out between $50 and $250 for tickets, with all proceeds going toward arts education in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Close to 1,200 people attended Friday’s performance.

Betty Gentillon was first introduced to Browne’s music when visiting John, Leysa and Torre Gentillon at their San Diego home. Leysa Gentillon has been a fan since she was 15, when she got her first Jackson Browne album as a birthday present. As for Torre Gentillon, her favorite songs are “In The Shape of a Heart,” “Doctor My Eyes” and “Taking the Trouble” — or the “going to school song” — as she and her mother would play it in the car en route to class.

Browne, who lives in Santa Monica and has a nephew attending Santa Monica High School, has earmarked the proceeds of his benefit concerts to go toward third grade general music for the district’s four Title 1 elementary schools; fourth and fifth grade choral music for the four Title 1 elementary schools and the Dream Winds program for John Adams and Lincoln middle schools.

Those programs represent about $60,000 worth of programming costs. The proceeds from Friday night will fund those programs and the balance of the proceeds will go to an arts endowment.

“It kills me that you have to have a benefit to fund the arts,” Browne told the audience members, while injecting a bit of political humor. “If the arts aid in brain development, how many presidents do you think played an instrument?”

Friday night’s concert raised about $100,000 with Yahoo! Inc. underwriting the program’s expenses, which amounted to about $25,000, according to Linda Gross, executive director of the Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that raises money for various disciplines throughout the school district.

Browne performed with Venice, a Southern California vocal band who are international recording artists. Members of Venice, which predominately consists of siblings and cousins, are both parents in the school district and co-founders of the Artists For The Arts Foundation. Members of Venice have created a guitar class at Olympic High School with the proceeds from their concerts.

Artists For The Arts Foundation is a non-profit foundation dedicated to producing fundraising concerts to benefit arts programs in public schools and, in this instance, to additionally help fund the local school district.

The concerts are part of a campaign called “For the Arts,” which has a goal to raise $15 million for an endowment that will ensure every student receives instruction in the arts, including music, visual arts, dance and drama. For the Arts, a fund-raising arm of the Education Foundation, has so far raised nearly $2 million toward its goal.

Browne has raised nearly $300,000 from his concerts alone. In 2004, he performed at Barnum Hall with Venice. In 2005, he performed with Ozomatali at the Greek Theater on the Samohi campus. This past Friday, Browne not only brought Venice along, but a new addition — Fred Martin and the Levite Camp, a student-based Christian choir that originated from Washington Preparatory High School in South Central Los Angeles.

Martin and Browne have been friends for years, since Martin’s high school choir backed Browne at a benefit concert in the early 1990s. On Sept. 19, Concord Records will release an album by Martin and the Levite Camp, with many songs written by Browne. He also sings on two songs and co-produced the album with Martin.

The choir, which performed with Venice and Browne during several of the evening’s songs, garnered several standing ovations from the crowd.

Browne also brought people to their feet with his classics like “Running on Empty.” He seemed a bit more at ease with the crowd than in previous performances, joking with audience members about life in Santa Monica.

“How grateful I am to live in Santa Monica,” he told the crowd, adding that he prefers to work out at the beach instead of gyms. While it’s one of his favorite places to be, the beach also brings with it a bit of messy vitality.

“But you know, Santa Monica is home of the homeless; they aren’t part of the class but they are part of the lesson, if you know what I mean.”