Dave Baney, jazz guitarist, 62

[deb...@comcast.net]

Dave Baney, guitarist on jazz scene here, dies

September 17, 2005

BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter

Dave Baney played jazz, but he knew the blues.

Mr. Baney, a Chicago guitarist who played such joints as Andy's Jazz
Club and Dick's Last Resort, was in a car accident as a teenager and
severed the tendons in his left hand.

In 1995, his younger brother, Michael, also a musician, was killed in
an attempted robbery in Cincinnati after leaving a gig.

Two years later, one of Mr. Baney's granddaughters drowned in a pool
accident at her family's Orlando home.

All of it "sent him into a real tailspin with depression," said John
Bany, his brother and a Chicago jazz bassist.

Mr. Baney, who for the last few years was living at the Community
Multi-Care Center in Fairfield, Ohio, died Sept. 11 of complications
from emphysema. He was 62.

In his prime performing years, Mr. Baney was a "happy-go-lucky" guy who
taught budding musicians of all ages and built guitars for students,
John Bany said. He loved music so much that he named his cat
Montgomery, after jazz great Wes Montgomery.

"His style is definitely his own," according to ChicagoJazz.com, an
online jazz magazine. "He can lead you through intense moments of
driving pulse, and then take you into the dark, aching feelings of a
love ballad."

Born Charles David Bany in Dayton Ohio, Mr. Baney -- who legally
changed his last name in the 1970s -- first picked up a guitar when he
was 12. Music ran in his veins. His father, Norbert, played string bass
and rhythm guitar, and his mother, Barbara, sang, though not
professionally.

Mr. Baney studied with guitarist Cal Collins, famous on the Cincinnati
jazz scene. By 16, he was playing nightclubs in Cincinnati, his brother
said.

The car accident that damaged Mr. Baney's hand when he was 17 didn't
ruin his love for the guitar. "He learned how to lift his whole hand
off the guitar and put it back on again," John Bany said.

Mr. Baney served in the Navy from 1961 to 1964. Upon moving to
Cincinnati, he worked the nightclub circuit as part of a jazz duo and
later as a one-man music and comedy show.

In 1987, Mr. Baney, who was twice married, moved to Chicago, where his
brother John already was working as a musician. The two played together
in a quintet at the club Wheeds near Weed and Dayton streets. Mr. Baney
also played with Jim Beebe's Chicago Jazz and the Chuck Hedges
Swingtet. He was a regular on stage at Andy's and at Braxton Seafood
Grill in Oak Brook.

Mr. Baney was in another car accident in the late 1990s. Though he was
physically unharmed, "it destroyed his self-confidence," John Bany
said. He eventually lost his ability to play guitar, John Bany said.

In addition to his brother, Mr. Baney is survived by four children;
another brother, Mark Bany of Cincinnati; a sister, Mary Lou Murray of
Indian Trail, N.C., and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Oct. 9 from 5 p.m. to midnight at
Andy's Jazz Club, 11 E. Hubbard. Donations can be made to the Michael
Bany Memorial Scholarship Fund, www.bany.tv.