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Dec. 29 will mark the 10th anniversary of the death of local musician Michael Bany, who spent much of his life playing with some of the biggest names on the local scene, including Wheels, The Bluebirds and The Goshorn Brothers. After a gig with the latter at former Main Street bar Tommy’s on Main, Bany’s life came to a tragic end, as he was slain near his car during a robbery attempt.
In the decade since his murder, Bany’s name has been kept very much alive. In 1996, a “memorial jam” led to the idea of forming the Michael W. Bany Scholarship Fund. A committee was formed, led by the musician’s brother, Mark Bany, and a core group of close friends.
The idea was to create an annual music scholarship to be given to an area student with the desire to pursue an education in music at the collegiate level. Since the creation, the fund has delivered a scholarship each year.
The Bany Fund committee hooked up with the Cincinnati Scholarship Foundation (CSF), which helps on the administration end. Out of the 75 scholarships CSF helps operate, the Michael W. Bany Scholarship Fund is the only one that focuses on music education. The foundation sends out applications annually to around 120 high schools in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
The scholarship recipients are determined by the students’ financial needs as well as how good their grades are.
“We have requirements, and we don’t just let them slide,” says Mark Bany, who lost another musician brother earlier this year, Dave Bany, a Jazz guitarist in Chicago. “They’ve got to keep their grades up to a certain level. When they go on as sophomores, their grades have to get better. We try to weed out the wannabes.”
Bany says the organization keeps in contact with the scholarship recipients. Besides making sure they stay on track in their studies, he says he and his colleagues also enjoy watching their progress.
Suzanne Buerkle, the first recipient, went on to get her master’s degree and is now getting her doctorate. She recently appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, backing Pop star Clay Aiken.
The Bany Fund’s fund-raising activities include an annual golf outing and various one-off events, such as this year’s grand opening of the new Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant. The fund’s main fund-raising source dissolved when The Enquirer ended its Cammys music awards program several years ago.
This is the first year the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards has been involved with the charity, donating all of the ticket proceeds from the Nov. 21 event at the Taft Theatre to the cause.
Mark Bany bristles slightly when asked what Michael would think about all of the work the organization has done in his honor, saying, “That’s hard to answer because he’s not here.”
It’s obviously a question he’s been asked many times before. But he quickly adds, “I think he’d be pissed, ’cause I think he’d want to go up there and get an award.”
Mark’s best memories of his brother have little to do with music. There’s a mix of weary sadness and spirited joy in his voice when asked about the first thing that pops into his head when he remembers his close-knit relationship with his sibling.
“Thanksgiving,” Mark answers. “We started our own tradition where we’d get together and make the bird and then get a little toasty at the same time, then everybody else would come over. When I think of Michael, I just think about how he was a really great brother and a great friend.
“As Forest Gump put it, ‘We were like peas and carrots.’ ”
For more on the MICHAEL W. BANY SCHOLARSHIP FUND, check out bany.tv.
This article appears in Nov 16-22, 2005.