In Brian Gildea’s life, he’s been a lot of things.
A White House summer intern for the Jimmy Carter administration. A manager of Teamsters on the docks in New Orleans. A part-time usher for venues hosting major concerts and minor league sporting events in Charleston, South Carolina.
One thing he hasn’t been is a professional musician — somewhat surprising when considering his late mother, Trudy Gildea, introduced the Suzuki strings program to the Golden Triangle and once played the violin at Carnegie Hall.
“I’m a horn guy,” Brian Gildea said, noting he plays the saxophone but also the clarinet and keyboard. “I am a musician, sort of a classically trained, frustrated musician. I just wasn’t good enough and didn’t have the desire to play professionally.”
He still knows a good show when he sees one, and he’s happy to tell you he’s seen plenty. If you have the time and $20 Friday night, he’s sure you can see one too.
His business, Gildea Productions, is again partnering with the Columbus Arts Council for a Blues Series Concert. Guitarist and vocalist Vasti Jackson, a McComb native, will headline. The concert also will feature Keith Johnson (great-nephew of Muddy Waters) and Red Velvet, a female blues singer “who came out of Alabama churches.”
Doors open at 6:30 at Lyceum at Lee. Performances begin an hour later.
“When I was making the concert with Vasti, he asked me what kind of concert to do,” Gildea said. “… I said, ‘I want a sweat-drenching, soul-gripping live performance.’ That’s what he does.”
Rendezvous with the blues
Gildea’s family moved to Columbus in 1962. He remembers attending concerts at Mississippi University for Women — Jim Croce, Bill Withers, the Columbus orchestra.
Though he describes himself as a “‘70s Oldies guy by nature,” his arrival to the Tulane campus as a student in 1976 opened his eyes and ears to the blues.
“Here’s the thing about the blues. It’s really a misnomer and an amalgam for a lot of different genres,” Gildea said. “… It appeals to the human emotion, whether it’s soul or gospel or country. Southern soul. You hear those elements.
“People think of the blues with a down connotation,” he added. “It’s the opposite. It’s about redemption. Blues is about getting up after you’ve been knocked down.”
After graduating in 1981, he started his career in trucking and shipping in New Orleans, staying until 1992. During that time, he began building producer contacts, starting with his now ex-wife’s first cousin Carlo Ditta, who has run the small label Orleans Records for 40 years.
Gildea’s career took him to Charleston, Memphis, Tennessee, and Charleston again, where he retired in 2002 and took on part-time gigs as ushering and working the gate for North Charleston Coliseum and Joe Riley Park — working baseball and hockey games and of course, concerts.
“Saw Bruce Springstein. Saw Elton John,” he said. “Country music concerts. All sorts of stuff there.”
Securing a legacy
In 2014, he moved back to Columbus, partly to help take care of his elderly mother. Soon he found himself helping secure her legacy.
Trudy, a beloved matron of Columbus arts, once directed the Columbus Arts Council and brought the Suzuki Strings programs to schools across the Golden Triangle, teaching hundreds of area students to play the violin.
Upon Brian’s return, he joined the CAC board, diving into the local art scene with an ambitious vision for its possibilities — something else he took from his mother.
“When (my mom) took violin lessons in the 1940s, her teacher told her she would never be good enough to play at Carnegie Hall,” he said “… In 2017, she played at Carnegie Hall. So when I hear people say, ‘We can’t do this, and we can’t do that,’ it’s like, ‘Don’t tell me it can’t be done.’ … Because I know better.”
By 2022, he was off the board but remained active with CAC, teaming up with an “enthusiastic” new director in Salem Gibson to start the blues series. The first concert brought Little Freddie King to the Omnova Theatre inside Rosenzweig Arts Center. Later performances featured Mr. Sipp, Big Daddy Cade and the Blues Masters (a B.B. King tribute band) and three-time Grammy-winner Bobby Rush.
Brian sees Friday’s concert, in the larger Lyceum at Lee, as a tribute to his mother, who passed away in July 2023.
Gibson said the Gildea family keeps Trudy’s legacy alive in other ways, providing continued support for the Suzuki Strings Program and others.
“We don’t realize how important this stuff is until it is starting to leave us,” Gibson said. “We wouldn’t realize how important all these music lessons were for the kids until we look up one day and we don’t have them. (Brian’s) really good at seeing that too and saying, ‘Hey, we can’t let us get to that point.’”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
