George Brumat, 1943-2007By Tom McDermott
George Brumat, a long-time owner of both Snug Harbor Jazz Club and the Port of Call Restaurant, died in his sleep in New Orleans on July 7.
Brumat, a bearlike figure in his later years, was beloved by jazz musicians in New Orleans and beyond for his generous stewardship of the city’s prime modern jazz venue from 1992 on. When he opened the Faubourg Jazz Club in 1980, he planted one of the seeds that would blossom into today’s Frenchmen Street scene.
He was born Giorgio Brumat in Zara, Italy in 1943 to an Italian father and an Albanian mother. After World War II, this land was ceded to the newly-formed Yugoslavia (the town is now called Zadar and is part of Croatia). The family spent the first few years of his life traveling around a difficult post-war Europe, in Hamburg and Monza and finally in Rome, where Brumat lived until the age of 12.
Brumat’s father had connections in the Italian film industry, and he spent much of his early childhood in Rome on film sets, where he found work dubbing American kids’ voices into Italian. He told me of one particular adventure from these days. “I was on a film set where Sophia Loren was the star,” he said. “She liked me and let me sit on her lap on breaks. This was just at the time that I was starting to notice that men and women were put together differently, so I tell people now that, when it comes to women, I started at the very top.” In 1955, Brumat, his two brothers and his parents immigrated to America. After a short stay in New York City, they moved to New Orleans, where George lived the last 51 years of his life. He learned Spanish from his neighbors, and eventually English in the classic immigrant manner by going to the cinema every day.
After laying low for a few years, Brumat re-emerged on the scene by buying Snug Harbor in 1992. He spent most of his waking hours from then on running the club, providing perhaps the most varied lineup of any music club in New Orleans. In a city that doesn’t pay its musicians well, Snug guaranteed a decent paycheck, and the musicians, freed from the onus of passing a tip jar, responded with great performances.
Where Brumat got his love of jazz is something of a mystery. His niece, Luanna Brumat, believes it was from the movies. “If you look at Italian and American art movies from the ’50s and ’60s there’s a lot of great jazz,” she says. “George was a fan of the movies his whole life.” Others credit bassist/songwriter Ramsey McLean with inspiring Brumat’s love of jazz.
And at the end of his life, Brumat co-produced his own movie. His DVD of Snug Harbor’s star performers was culled from dozens of hours of footage of regulars including Ellis Marsalis, Charmaine Neville, Astral Project, Henry Butler and others. In addition, Brumat made rough audio tapes of hundreds of shows, an archive that may be without equal on the contemporary music scene.
On July 22, many of the performers from the club performed a farewell concert for Brumat at the performance hall at the University of New Orleans. UNO has also established a music scholarship in his name.
Ode To George
George wasn't a Cro-at a Marigny hepcat. A nocturnal creature and aesthetic beseecher.
Looked like Brahms-on-the-bayou, and I would defy you, to name two or three guys who helped jazz like he. OK, that rhyme was lame, but still, just the same, George was unique and we talked every week about music and food, and when in the mood, at around one or two, he'd show flicks for his krewe.
Right after Katrina I remember seein' a shot of George on cable with his hotplate most able. Look! It's GEORGE! on CNN! I still recall the feeling when I heard him, on the airwaves, live tell the world that we'd survive.
Years from now, the world will see on their laptop or car TV or whatever new technology will have evolved by 3003 the shots that Giorgio Brumat captured: local players, jazz-enraptured. They'll talk of Snug with piety and say it was the place to be in our town many years ago on summer nights when things were slow.
He loved our tunes to the very end thanks for everything, my friend.
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