The jazz composer and pianist Dave Brubeck, who died yesterday, was intensely interested in spiritual things. He said once that “something should be done musically to strengthen man’s knowledge of God.” He became a Catholic in 1980 shortly after composing a Mass To Hope, commissioned by the Catholic publishing company Our Sunday Visitor (a place where I used to work). He wrote other sacred music too. About ten years ago I saw him perform the choral pageant La Fiesta de la Posada, based on a Latin American Christmas tradition. Brubeck was best-known as a jazz performer and composer. Listening to Brubeck, playing songs like “In Your Own Sweet Way,” caused me to fall in love with jazz.