Meeting Dave Brubeck
Another story of discretion...
Meeting my Heroes is an occasional essay series from Matt Carmichael.
Another of my dad’s heroes was Dave Brubeck. My dad loved his music, perhaps more than another other jazz musician. That story is simple. The rest of this is going to be a little emotional roller coaster. Our relationships to heroes and the contexts we have those relationships can change, and evolve and contain a lot of complexity. Some humor. Some seriousness. Just like our relationships to each other. That’s especially true here because I met Brubeck in an awkward place…
He was at the urinal next to me at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, where he was set to perform La Fiesta de La Posada his Christmas Cantata (Festival of the Inn). Much as I wanted to, I chose not to introduce myself and fanboy. Didn’t seem quite the moment to go for a hand shake or autograph.
The show was magic. It’s an incredible piece of music. In the early days of the Internet, as it was, it was really hard to find a CD copy of it. I eventually did using a shopping alert on a weird little CD site that I have never figured out how to turn off and still get pings from every few years. But I gave a copy to my dad as a present.
Although I never got to meet meet him, I did see him again at Grant Park. And I had a really funny thread on twitter with DJ John Richards about celebrities you’ve met in the bathroom. I am not alone in that, either. Oddly this thread included Bill Janovitz from Buffalo Tom and Bryan Ferry, whom I also did not take the opportunity to meet in catering at Tweeter Center, but instead Pam and I sat at a nearby table and left him to eat alone. Which I kind of regret, but also could have gotten fired for approaching him depending on how he reacted. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
In my dad’s final moments, we played Brubeck for him. I hope he was able to hear and enjoy.
I clearly felt the need to clarify….
