Peter O'Brien, who died in Wexford on November 30th, was one of the country's leading jazz pianists, as well as a musical director and performer in many theatre shows. His wide-ranging musical interests ranged from jazz, boogie and the blues to Irish traditional and classical music.
The son of a quantity surveyor, Jack O'Brien, and his wife, Joyce, Peter O'Brien grew up in Killiney in a well-off home devoted to music and the other arts. Regular visitors there included John MacCormack and Brian O'Nolan. His talent as a pianist manifested itself early, and he entered the Royal Irish Academy of Music at the age of 10. He emerged from there at the age of 17 a licentiate of the academy, the holder of its gold medal for composition, and winner of many piano competitions.
He was to maintain a lifelong connection with classical music, with a particular love for Mozart, but a visit to Paris in the 1950s to study French changed the direction of his professional life. It was there that he first heard the recordings of Thomas "Fats" Waller and thus began a lifelong involvement with the Harlem Stride jazz piano style. In time he was to become one of Europe's foremost exponents of that style and to perform with many top players.
During a period in London from 1987 to 1992 he shared top billing at the 100 Club with such stars as Stephane Grappelli, George Melly and Humphrey Lyttelton. He also played with such luminaries as Bud Freeman, Wild Bill Davidson, Warren Vaché jnr, Harry Allen, Stan Greig and Acker Bilk and was a regular accompanist to international jazz musicians touring Ireland.
He performed frequently with many of Ireland's best-known jazz musicians, including Richie Buckley, Paddy Cole, Paul Sweeney, Dave Fleming, Len McCarthy and Rock Fox and Myles Drennan and Colm "Stride" O'Brien. He was a regular player on radio and television and at festivals at home and abroad, his last such being a successful visit to the Clearwater Jazz Festival in Florida earlier this year. He also gave many concerts at the National Concert Hall, at one stage appearing there as often as 12 times a year.
Because of his classical background and his wide range of interests in many types of music, Peter O'Brien was always in demand, particularly in the area where music and theatre meet. In the 1970s he worked on several shows for the Abbey Theatre and thereafter and collaborated as composer, musical director and accompanist with many of the country's best known singers, musicians and actors.
He was an indispensable member of the team, starring Rosaleen Linehan and Des Keogh, that produced a highly popular series of revues during the 1980s and 1990s and he returned with them when they successfully revived the formula in 2000. Among the other actors with whom he worked were Anna Manahan, Eamon Morrissey and the late Agnes Bernelle, whom he accompanied on her shows of German cabaret songs, which toured Europe and Britain as well as Ireland.
Among the singers he performed with were Mary Coughlan, with whom he did a show based on the songs of the jazz singer Billie Holiday, Susie Kennedy, on shows about Fats Waller and the singer Sophie Tucker, Ronnie Drew and classical singers like Cara O'Sullivan and Emanuel Lawler.
His arrangement of the John MacCormack favourite Macushla can be heard in the film Michael Collins, sung by the late Frank Patterson. It was sung at his funeral by Emanuel Keogh, accompanied by the violinist Geraldine O'Grady. He also recorded many CDs, the last being Jazz Piano of a Celtic Soul and before that 2001 - a Stride Odyssey with the famous American jazz pianist Ralph Sutton.
Peter O'Brien worked in advertising until the early 1980s, when he left to take up a full-time musical career. Known as "The Professor", which he was in the jazz rather than the academic sense of the term, he had always been technically adept, but many critics felt that his playing had become richer and deeper as he grew older.
Diagnosed with terminal cancer last May, he bravely chose not to hide his illness, nor to let it interfere with his career, and he continued to perform all over the country. He was due to give a Hallowe'en show at the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, on the day after he died. A humorous, kind and always good-humoured man, a packed tribute to him at the National Concert Hall last July gave evidence of the love and affection he inspired in all who knew and worked with him.
He is survived by his wife, Theresa, and his sons and daughters, Johnny, Sinéad, Peter and Katie (children of his first wife, Catherine).
Peter O'Brien: born 1939; died October 31st , 2003