p, 1921-2003
Musician
A.k.a. Norman J. O'Connor
Father Norman James O'Connor, (nicknamed "The Jazz Priest"), (November 20, 1921 - June 29, 2003) was born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 20, 1921. He became interested in jazz music at an early age and began playing piano with local jazz bands while in high school. He continued to work occasionally as a musician into the 1940s, but had abandoned the thought of music as a career by the time he enrolled at Catholic University in Washington. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the aesthetics of popular music.