Wilton Library pushes efforts to put a spotlight on collection from jazz great Dave Brubeck

WILTON — The Smithsonian holds the works of Duke Ellington. The Library of Congress holds the Ella Fitzgerald Collection. And the Wilton Library has The Brubeck Collection, which ranks up there with the Ellington and Fitzgerald collections in its size and significance. Three years after agreeing to receive the works of late jazz legend Dave Brubeck, the Wilton Library is now reigniting efforts to shine a spotlight on The Brubeck Collection. A goal in the library’s strategic plan this year is to raise awareness of the collection and make this rare exhibit a “marquee asset” of the Wilton Library. The Wilton Library announced it was accepting the collection in January 2020 with plans to create a dedicated room in its building for a display. However, COVID-19 shutdowns delayed the roll-out. The room housing the collection opened in late 2021, said Michael Bellacosa, the library’s head of adult programming and curator of The Brubeck Collection. Since then, the collection has been kept in a former computer training lab, which was gutted and transformed into an archive space with design elements similar to those in Brubeck’s Wilton home, such as shoji screens and a wall redesigned with a fireplace. “You’re seeing things like what the inside of Dave’s house in Wilton actually looked like,” Bellacosa said. Brubeck, who died in 2012 at the age of 91, was best known for his hit "Take Five;" his other signature jazz songs included “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” “For Iola” and “The Duke." He and his wife, Iola, were longtime Wilton residents. The room also has new shelves, furniture and a display case, where visitors can see collection materials as they walk by the room. If their interest is piqued, they can make an appointment to visit or drop in on the second Tuesday of the month when one of the library’s archivists staffs the room to welcome visitors. Already, the collection has had visitors from across the country, and Bellacosa said he has even assisted major news outlets in helping them find photos for articles. “We have quite a number of people doing that, some coming from pretty far away and some coming with really specific interests,” he said. The Brubeck Collection, which includes the late Wilton musician’s collection of recordings, correspondence, photos, manuscripts and at least 85 DVDs of his performances and TV appearances, has had a “steady stream” of visitors, Bellacosa said. But now the Wilton Library wants to do more to highlight its existence, especially after research for the library strategic plan showed that not many participants knew about the collection. Such a collection is a rarity for a library the size of Wilton’s, something the library determined when researching ways to highlight the collection, Executive Director Caroline Mandler said. So the library is focusing on "Phase 2” of the launch of the collection. “For a public library to have something like this is an honor and responsibility,” Mandler said. “We wanted to focus on that. There’s so many things we can do with it. Beyond an attraction for Wilton, it’s an attraction for the state and the Northeast,” she said. The Wilton Library is trying to increase engagement with The Brubeck Collection through two avenues: programming and a digital catalog, Bellacosa said. Also, the library often does programs about jazz and history, two subjects that apply to Brubeck, so they hope to incorporate collection items into these events and reach new audiences this way. Bellacosa said they also hope to partner with schools to connect with students. In addition, the Wilton Library is creating an online archive that allows visitors to virtually search the collection, see what’s available, and even view some of the items online. This project will likely be online by early summer. “It’s highly sophisticated, and we’re excited because it’ll allow remote users to access what we have,” Bellacosa said. This database will also allow for the creation of “virtual exhibits” he said, so the library can rotate in and out different materials. “What we found is people are really interested in visuals,” he said. “They really like music because it's a jazz archive and to a lesser extent there's a tremendous amount of business correspondence. … When you have a collection that is that large, every time you open a box, you find something amazing.” The Wilton Library is also home to the Brubeck Room, a 150-seat performance space created for concerts, lectures and authors. It was named for Brubeck and his family in 2006 during the library’s major expansion.

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