From Rory O’Conner
(When Dave Brubeck, one of the great jazz artists of the last 60 years, passed away early this December, Niagara At Large paid a little tribute to him with a post titled Goodbye To A Jazz Giant Who Was A Great Friend Of This Greater Niagara Region .
NAL received a number of nice comments to that tribute, including this latest one from Rory O’Conner from the Buffalo, New York area which we feel is worth highlighting as a post on its own, given the close contact Rory had with Dave Brubeck as he lent his talents to a good cause in the region in the last years of his life.
Here is Rory O’Conner’s tribute to the great artistry and generosity of Dave Brubeck)
Jazz icon Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck was … ‘a very wonderful and solid citizen of the world. I live in Buffalo and was fortunate to sit on the Board of Directors of a wonderful not-for-profit entity called Computers For Children.As part of our mission to minimize the digital divide, we raised funds in a variety of ways, one of which was our Annual Gala Event, usually right before Christmas.
One year, we were fortunate enough to sign Dave Brubeck as our great attraction to the event. He was to play with the Buffalo Great (jazz saxist) Bobby Militello, who traveled and played with Dave for many years.
I had the great fortune of spending a fair bit of time with Mr. Brubeck and asked if he would mind having a local talent to open for him. He thought that it would be great. Jared Izzo, now in Boston, was 17 at the time and I invited him to be our opening entertainment. He is a gifted musician–piano and guitar, and songwriter so he blended some of his material with Dave’s.
Dave was very impressed and invited Jared up to play with his group. Very wonderful indeed.
Even more amazing was that Dave did this “concert for us” on his 81st birthday, and donated half of his fee back to our Charity. He and Bobby played for three hours.
What a tremendous man and influence on so many lives….and it was right here in the Buffalo/ Niagara Region.
(Rory B. O’Connor is a resident of Snyder, New York, a community just outside of Buffalo. We thank him for sharing his story and we encourage others across our Greater Niagara Region to share news and commentary on our site. You can find out more about contributing posts to this site by emailing drapers@vaxxine.com. )
Niagara At Large 