George Brumat, owner of Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro - R.I.P.

[Lois Gilbert]

George Brumat, owner of Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro dies

From Pat Jolly:

George Brumat, owner of Snug Harbor, died in his sleep last night.

George was one of those rare club owners that honored and respected musicians, and even more remarkably, shared his profits with them. He was such a kind hearted soul and always stepped up to the plate to help those in need.

Immediately after Katrina, to give the healing gift of music to the community and just to be sure that the musicians had gigs, he kept Snug open with free gigs many nights a week. He did so at a huge financial loss as there were not many people even living in New Orleans at the time.

Brumat was proud of his work on a recently completed project, a jazz DVD featuring many Snug Harbor regulars. He wrote, produced, directed and edited the footage shot by Joe Zahavi. He left us a tribute to his greatest love. George Brumat was the true supporter of modern jazz. He will be missed by many.

The gig planned at Snug tonight is still on with vocalist Arlee Leonard, Tony Dagradi, Larry Sieberth, Don Vappie, Gerald French and featuring David and Roselyn (her parents) as guest artists.

From Jason at Snug Harbor:

To all the Friends of Snug Harbor,

Owner George Brumat died yesterday peacefully in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. This has been a huge shock to everyone associated with the Snug but we know George would want us to keep on keeping on. So the business will remain open even though there is a big hole in all our lives now without his presence. If you want to make a testimonial of any length about George, please e-mail it to Jason@snugjazz.com. We will announce arraignments for funeral and memorial event as they are confirmed. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

From Arlee Leonard

Especially for those of you who worked in this wonderful club over the years, I just heard this morning from Pat Jolly that the owner, GEORGE BRUMAT, the best friend to modern jazz musicians in New Orleans and one of the reasons Frenchman St. is such a cool hang, passed away in his sleep last night. I asked him Friday if he'd be at my gig tonight and he responded, "Is the Pope German?!" He'll be there in spirit I know.

Snug Harbor is New Orleans' premier jazz venue. The club owners have been taking care of musicians and giving audiences a wonderful show for 25 years. George's passing is a loss to all of us musicians and to the audiences who love what we do.

My show will go on tonight, SUNDAY JULY 8, as will the LIVE BROADCAST at 10PM CENTRAL TIME ON WWW.WWOZ.ORG. My band tonight is a stellar line up of Snug regulars, LARRY SIEBERTH/piano, TONY DAGRADI (Astral Project)/sax, DON VAPPIE(Creole Serenader, Wynton Marsalis)/bass, GERALD FRENCH (Charmaine Neville & Ingrid Lucia)/drums, and my parents, special guests DAVID & ROSELYN.

Obviously, the tone of the show tonight will be different than it would have been. We will pay tribute to George as the wonderful friend and supporter of live jazz in New Orleans he has always been. And we will possibly have a flow of special guests wanting to show their appreciation. My role will shift from bandleader to hostess as needed for this unprecedented evening at Snug Harbor.

To George, we love you and will miss you dearly. I hope you enjoy the music tonight. May your soul rest in peace for a job well done - work you did with love that we will always appreciate here in New Orleans. WE MISS YOU ALREADY!

[clinthopson]

Snug Harbor is one of our favorite N.O. places.

I just hope they keep it going.

[tippy]

The world needs more like him. Snug is where I was introduced to jazz, a live art. Rest in peace.

[stevebop]

The first time I went to Snug was during JazzFest.
It was Tuesday, May 2nd, 1989. I went to see the duo of vocalist Aaron
Neville with pianist Amasa Miller.
We wound up sitting in the small balcony section looking down on the stage and when Aaron opened his mouth and out came "My Mother's Eyes" it was like being in Heaven. Literally and figuratively. They did an entire evening of standards. "Body and Soul," "Danny Boy," etc. I'll never forget that first time.
Also, if I remember correctly, the Shrimp Remoulade and Fish Marigny were pretty damn good, too! I've been back a number of times since.

Rest in Peace, George Brumat.

Steve Schwartz
Jazz from Studio Four
Friday, 8p-midnight
WGBH, 89.7FM, Boston
www.wgbh.org/jazz

[Jeff Albert]

This is what I wrote on my blog about George:

George was a great club owner. I know that is hard to believe that any club owner could be great, and I know that none of them are perfect, but George was the greatest I have ever dealt with. He always treated the musicians with respect. He listened to what we did. He gave the musicians financial guarantees. I always knew the minimum amount of money I would get when we worked for George. On good nights there was more than I expected in that little brown envelope, but there was never less, even if the club was near empty.

I remember when Snug reopened after Katrina. It was one of the first times I thought things might eventually be ok. I am sure George lost loads of money in those first months, but he was open, and still paying the bands, because that was what he could do to help the city. And it definitely helped lots of folks spirits. George was a class act, and I will miss him.

From what I understand George's heir would be his brother, and I have heard that his brother would like to have the club continue as is. I think that would make George happy.