Born in Chicago, Illinois, on 19 January 1936, Walter Howard O’Brien entered the world as the biological child of a musically inclined mother whose relatives shared that inclination. Adopted at six weeks of age, he nevertheless grew up in a household where both parents enjoyed music; as a youngster he took up the piano and absorbed the stride and boogie styles that dominated recordings in the early 1940s. During a 2001 conversation with Gordon Jack of Jazz Journal International, O’Brien recalled that JATP records had left him “hooked on bebop” by the age of fourteen. Early models such as Billy Taylor and Hank Jones guided his development, and he pursued formal training both privately and at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. Subsequent encounters with Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris and Claude Williamson deepened his appreciation of Bud Powell. Professional engagements began in the early 1950s, chiefly across the north-eastern states, where he also fronted his own ensemble. After substituting for Randy Weston he met drummer Willie Jones, who urged him toward New York; once there, Jones introduced him to the loft circuit and to figures such as Charles Mingus. Late in the decade O’Brien joined Oscar Pettiford’s New York band, stepping in for Bill Evans, whose approach had not suited the bassist. He next worked in Albany with the ensemble led by J.R. Monterose and appeared on the Prestige album Three Trumpets alongside Donald Byrd, Art Farmer and Idrees Sulieman under Teddy Charles’s leadership. Toward the close of the 1950s and into the early 1960s he held a steady post in the house rhythm section of a Staten Island club, accompanying visiting soloists, before leaving music for other pursuits. At Columbia University he studied psychology and computer programming, eventually taking positions in the computer field and serving as a research assistant at New York University. He nevertheless maintained his musical studies, working on composition with Hal Overton. In the mid-1970s he and Roswell Rudd, whom he had known since their student days despite later divergent paths, briefly operated the New York jazz club St. James Infirmary; there O’Brien anchored the house trio behind Pepper Adams, Chet Baker, Marshall Brown, Al Cohn, Sheila Jordan, Joe Puma, Archie Shepp and Zoot Sims. During the same decade he also performed in a trio co-led by former Ellington sidemen Russell Procope and Sonny Greer. Additional associations, some of them documented on record, included Ray Drummond, Gene Quill, Belgian guitarist René Thomas, Kenny Washington and Phil Woods. Early in the 1980s he toured as accompanist to vocalist Stephanie Nakasian, whom he subsequently married; in 1984 the pair recorded in Holland with Chet Baker and Warne Marsh. Throughout the decade O’Brien also set poems by Fran Landesman as songs. He maintained an active teaching schedule from the 1970s onward, serving on the faculty of the University of Virginia among other institutions. In 2000 he again toured with his wife and returned to the recording studio. Deeply grounded in bebop, O’Brien’s contributions as a sideman have consistently displayed exemplary taste and technical finish. Although his work as a leader and soloist has occasionally received muted acclaim, listeners invariably recognize the depth of his skill and the thoroughness of his professionalism.
