Tony Zamora, longtime Purdue BCC director and Lafayette jazz legend, remembered as more than 'that damn good musician'

LAFAYETTE – One afternoon in the early-‘90s, planning to end a short, not to mention rare, hiatus from gigs in downtown Lafayette clubs, Tony Zamora sat among a lifetime of art he and Betty, his wife, had collected for their home and mulled a question about his own status on the scene.

“I don’t want to be known as that jazz musician,” Zamora, director of Purdue’s Black Cultural Center for more than 20 years, said. “I want to be known as that damn good musician.”

“That, he was – a damn good musician,” said Don Seybold, host of WBAA’s “Inside Jazz” and a friend and colleague of Zamora’s during Seybold’s decades with Purdue Convocations. “And probably the most influential single person in my adult life. So wise and one of the best people I’ve ever known in every way you could imagine. … When they say things like ‘legend,’ it’s true. Tony was.”

Zamora, who came to Purdue in 1973 to help build a fledgling Black Cultural Center at Purdue and then stayed in Greater Lafayette the rest of his life, died Thursday. He was 90.

Born in Chicago, Zamora arrived in West Lafayette after a time as director of an African-American cultural program at the University of Illinois. At Purdue, he was the third director of the Black Cultural Center, which had opened in 1970. He led the BCC, including the initial stages of getting a new center built at Third and Russell streets, until 1995. He remained director emeritus in the years that followed.

At a time when campuses were just starting to add cultural centers, Zamora leaned into the arts, music and lectures to build the BCC’s standing at Purdue. His jazz background was a guiding force, as he made room for the Black Voices of Inspiration, the Haraka Writers, the Jahari Dance Troupe and the New Directional Players.

“Without written scripts or scores, Tony employed an historical Africanist tradition of improvisation as a foundation for leading the BCC,” Floyd Hayes III, a former Purdue professor, said in “Ever True,” John Norberg’s history of the university published in 2019.

Renee Thomas, who followed Zamora and remains BCC’s director, called Zamora “a pillar in our community.”

“He was a man of extraordinary integrity, intelligence, wisdom and strength,” Thomas said.

“Under his leadership, the Purdue and Greater Lafayette community was exposed to stellar African American civil rights icons, business leaders and artists, including Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Julian Bond and Dick Gregory, to name a few,” Thomas said. “His legacy will never be forgotten. He impacted so many people’s lives.”

In 2019, the Black Cultural Center renamed its multipurpose room the Antonio and Betty Zamora Performance Studio. And the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette hosted a show that featured pieces of the Zamoras’ art collection, in conjunction with a complementary exhibit by Joe Barry Carroll, a Purdue graduate and No. 1 pick in the 1980 NBA Draft.

Carroll was named trustee of the Antonio and Betty Zamora Trust of African Art, which covered more than 300 pieces. By way of introduction to the collection and the trust, Zamora spoke about why art mattered in all he did.

“I feel that art is revolution, and any real education has to include art,” Zamora wrote. “It is as important to students of color matriculating at a major university as it is to all people of color as we navigate a larger world that sometimes treat us like foreigners in our own land. You just cannot plant students in what is essentially foreign to them and expect them to do well without nurturing their spirit. As people of color, we need our art and color to properly nourish our spirit, our soul in all places.”

Carroll told the J&C in September, ahead of his “Black American Voices” exhibit in Lafayette, that the BCC was his home away from home during his days at Purdue and that Zamora was a mentor.

“We always looked to The Purdue Black Cultural Center as a respite and safe house during my time on that great campus,” Carroll wrote in introducing the Zamora Collection. “Through art, entertainment, lectures and cultural programming, Mr. Zamora created a nurturing place for those of us so far from home. He provided this bridge for us on our journey as we left our parents' home and made our way out into the world.”

Greater Lafayette musicians tended to revere Zamora, whose Tony Zamora Jazz Ensemble was a staple at the Knickerbocker on Fifth Street, festivals and other clubs with nearly forgotten names, including the Heidelberg and the Cork & Cleaver. Zamora built a reputation for nurturing younger players, including ones he plucked from Purdue, and giving them room to explore.

“No one gave players more time to solo than the leader the way Tony did,” Seybold said.

Scott Pazera, a bass player and instructor, said that even as Zamora’s gigs became less frequent, Zamora was still a presence as the scene turned to a new generation of players.

“I was always in awe of his ability to keep his finger on both the tradition of jazz while being absolutely the most current to what trends and players were cutting the new paths in Black American music,” Pazera said. “Every time he and I had a chance to relax and hang out, I always left the conversation with the feeling that I was on the right path.”

Matt Seybold, Don Seybold’s son, called Tony and Betty Zamora “vaunted presences” in his family’s home since he was little. Seybold, now a professor in Elmira, New York, said he picked up the saxophone because of the late Eddie Vinson.

“But I kept playing it because of Tony,” Matt Seybold said.

He said Zamora invited him, as an early teen, to start sitting in with the jazz ensemble – “probably the coolest thing that had happened to me up to that point. Maybe still is.”

He tells a story about being invited to sit in toward the end of a set at the Riverfront Jazz & Blues Festival in the early-‘90s in downtown Lafayette. He said he showed up well before the start of the show but that Zamora refused to tell him what number to prepare.

“I was nervous. There were a lot of people. I felt he was being a little mean,” Matt Seybold said. “I realized later that it was his way of telling me I was ready. I didn’t need to spend the next hour running the changes in my head. I needed to trust the band and myself. It turned out to be a major confidence-building moment for me, as I’m sure he anticipated.”

Don Seybold remembered that time, too.

“That was an important moment, not just for Matt as a musician, but as a man, as a person,” Don Seybold said.

“And that was Tony’s style,” he said. “He was that sort of leader throughout his life in everything he did, wise and soft-spoken, giving people structure while giving them freedom to really feel out and discover who they were and what they could be. … I’m missing him already.”

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.