Dave Brubeck's Southern Strategy

Home , Dave Brubeck, Eugene Wright, Jazz at Oberlin

Dave Brubeck’s Southern Strategy

Kelsey A. K. Klotz

Abstract: In January 1960, white jazz pianist Dave Brubeck made headlines for cancelling a twenty-five- date tour of colleges and universities across the American South after twenty-two schools had refused to allow his black bassist, Eugene Wright, to perform. This cancellation became a defining moment in Bru- beck’s career, forever marking him as an advocate for racial justice. This essay follows Brubeck’s engagement with early civil rights–era protests, examining the moments leading up to Brubeck’s cancellation of his 1960 tour of the South. In doing so, I uncover new details in Brubeck’s steps toward race activism that highlight the ways in which Brubeck leveraged his whiteness to support integration efforts, even as he simultaneously benefited from a system that privileged his voice over the voices of people of color. While Brubeck has been hailed as a civil rights advocate simply for cancelling his 1960 tour, I argue that Bru- beck’s activism worked on a deeper level, one that inspired him to adopt a new musical and promotional strategy that married commercial interests with political ideology. Brubeck’s advocacy relied on his power and privilege within the mainstream music industry to craft albums and marketing approaches that promoted integration in the segregationist South. Ultimately, this period in Brubeck’s career is significant because it allows deep consideration of who Brubeck spoke for and above, who listened, and for whom his actions as a civil rights advocate were meaningful.

In January 1960, white jazz pianist Dave Brubeck made headlines after twenty-two colleges and universities across the American South refused to allow his interracial quartet to perform. Initially, eleven of the schools backed out of their contracts with Brubeck upon learning that he and two other white musicians, saxophonist Paul Desmond and drummer Joe Morello, would be performing with African American bassist Eugene Wright. After Brubeck informed the remaining fourteen schools of Wright’s presence in his quartet, eleven more insisted Brubeck replace Wright with a white bassist, leaving only three willing to allow the integrat- kelsey a. k. klotz is a Lectur- er at the University of North Car- ed combo to perform. Brubeck refused to replace olina at Charlotte. She has pub- Wright, forgoing the $40,000 in revenue (worth lished in such journals as Jazz Per- nearly $400,000 today) he would have received spectives and The Common Reader. had he instead performed with a white bassist.

52 Representatives of the various schools in- the primary beneficiaries of their deci- Kelsey A. K. sisted, one after the other, that their can- sions to advocate for racial justice. In oth- Klotz cellations of Brubeck’s contracts were er words, Brubeck possessed the power to not based in prejudice, but on principle choose how and when to protest segrega- and policy. For the schools and their ad- tion, and because of that privilege, his im- ministrators, Brubeck broke his contract; age also benefited from those decisions. for Brubeck, contracts requiring segregation had no legal or moral basis.1 By his 1960 Southern tour, Brubeck had Taken together, these cancellations be- long been considered a “respectable” jazz came a defining moment in Brubeck’s ca- musician: a racially coded term indicating reer. Jazz and entertainment newspapers, that Brubeck was an acceptable choice for such as DownBeat and Variety, and black college campuses and concert halls, and newspapers, including the New York Am- could bring “new” (that is, white) audienc- sterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, Baltimore es to jazz. Though he began the Brubeck Afro-American, Los Angeles Sentinel, and Quartet in relative obscurity in 1951, Bru- Chicago Daily Defender, covered the event beck experienced a steep rise in populari- extensively, and nearly all positioned ty in the early 1950s, primarily through his Brubeck as a kind of civil rights hero.2 Af- performances on college campuses, and in ter his death, many of Brubeck’s obituar- 1954, he was featured on the cover of Time ies remembered him as having stood up magazine–only the second jazz musician for civil rights when he refused to replace to be so featured (Louis Armstrong was Wright in the segregated South. the first in 1949). Brubeck’s image quick- This essay follows Brubeck’s engage- ly reached newsstands across the nation ment with early civil rights–era pro- through other mainstream publications, tests, examining the moments leading up such as Vogue, Good Housekeeping, and Life. to Brubeck’s cancelled 1960 tour of the Brubeck frequently explained in inter- South. I uncover new details in Brubeck’s views that his quartet brought a “new” au- steps toward race activism that highlight dience to jazz music, one that was “seri- the ways in which Brubeck leveraged ous” and that had previously been put off his whiteness to support integration ef- by jazz’s supposedly low-brow, low-class forts, as well as the ways in which he ben- associations.3 On a 1954 television broad- efited from a system that privileged his cast with Dave Garroway, Garroway asked voice over those for whom he advocated. Brubeck if his picture on Time lent “a cer- While Brubeck has been hailed as a civ- tain amount of respectability to the jazz il rights advocate simply for refusing to business,” asking whether or not that re- appear without Wright, I argue that Bru- spectability was good for jazz.4 Brubeck beck’s activism worked on a deeper level, answered, “Well, I think it’s good, be- one that inspired him to adopt a new mu- cause the thing that’s held jazz back has sical and promotional strategy that mar- been the environment. And every time a ried commercial interest with political club is run decently, there’s an audience, ideology. Still, Brubeck’s story is similar a wonderful audience, that usually won’t to those of other “white heroes” of jazz go into a nightclub.” Brubeck explained (such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, that groups and musicians like the Bru- and Norman Granz): white bandleaders beck Quartet, Gerry Mulligan Quartet, who though largely well-meaning were and Stan Getz (all white) were helping to ultimately blind to racial politics and “make converts” of nonjazz audiences. power dynamics, and whose careers were Though Brubeck’s response to Garroway

148 (2) Spring 2019 53 Dave was not explicit, words like “respectable” and American primitivism that simulta- Brubeck’s and “decent” signified white spaces, while neously viewed black musicians’ talent Southern Strategy “environment” tended to mean urban, as being primarily emotional, or of the was associated with drugs, alcohol, pros- body.6 Using terminology from the Euro- titution, and crime, and was therefore of- pean concert tradition, including “coun- ten coded black. terpoint,” “passacaglia,” “polyphonic,” In a 1957 interview, Brubeck further “sonata,” “fugue,” and “canon,” and explained that his “fan mail frequent- drawing comparisons between Brubeck’s ly mentions how they have become in- music and that of Bach, Mozart, and Stra- terested in jazz through us, even though vinsky, critics asserted Brubeck’s de- they never liked it before. And that, by cidedly “intellectual” approach to jazz. playing our records, they’ve become in- That they did so in a language that, in the terested in most of the other jazz records 1950s, was primarily reserved for white of serious jazz artists.”5 Brubeck saw his composers and musicians, further en- appeal to “new” jazz audiences (that is, trenched Brubeck’s music in sonic signi- mostly white, economically privileged, fiers of whiteness. and educated audiences) as performing Jazz critics’ use of terminology from a service to the genre; he often cited the European classical music to describe cool fact that, in 1955, he was the first jazz mu- jazz generally, and Brubeck’s music spe- sician asked to speak at the Music Teach- cifically, ultimately determined what ers’ National Convention as evidence sounds passed as white in a typically that he brought nonjazz audiences to jazz, black genre. For instance, in a 1955 article, and he credited his performances at col- Arnold Shaw mapped clear visual imag- leges for students’ interest in other jazz es of whiteness associated with colleges groups, including the Modern Jazz Quar- and concert halls onto Brubeck’s musi- tet, an all-black quartet. Such achieve- cal style: “When you first hear the Bru- ments, according to Brubeck, were nev- beck Quartet you are immediately struck er attributable to his group’s overwhelm- by the novel blending of crew-cut and ing whiteness; he initially seemed to long-hair elements.”7 Shaw elaborated ignore the fact that black jazz musicians’ on the “echoes of Milhaud and Stravin- access to colleges and other education- sky” that listeners could find in Brubeck’s al settings, as well as promotion in main- music, as well as the quotes and influenc- stream magazines, was significantly lim- es from Grieg, Chopin, and Rachmani- ited compared to his own. noff. He explained to his Esquire readers In addition to Brubeck’s media image, that “Brubeck is excited by the devices of critics and audiences also closely linked counterpoint,” and he noted “delightful Brubeck’s sound to sonic signifiers of fugal exchanges” between Brubeck and whiteness. From its earliest recordings, Desmond. These “fugal” exchanges and jazz critics described the quartet in terms counterpoint were often meant to de- that maintained legacies of musical bina- scribe Brubeck and Desmond’s method ries that understood black musicians as of improvising together, which usually natural and emotional and white musi- took the form of “following the leader”: cians as rational and cerebral. That white Brubeck might begin a chorus of impro- critics would consider white jazz mu- vised counterpoint first, and Desmond sicians’ primary musical contributions would follow, playing in the breaks of to be intellectual, or of the mind, stems Brubeck’s solo. It was a method that was from a centuries-long legacy of European extremely familiar and even formulaic for

54 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Desmond and Brubeck, but which critics the Arkansas National Guard to the high Kelsey A. K. overwhelmingly found to be a sonic indi- school to bar the students’ entrance. It Klotz cator of intellect. was not until September 23, when Presi- Descriptions of similar sonic resonanc- dent Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized es of classical music in the music of black the Arkansas National Guard, thereby jazz musicians were rare, even in cases shifting their purpose from preventing to that would have easily warranted them, facilitating integration, that the students such as in recordings by the Modern Jazz were allowed entrance. Quartet.8 Critics and audiences were While jazz musicians such as Louis simply more likely to accept Brubeck as Armstrong, Charles Mingus, and their an intellectual, to accept his music as ce- supporters openly decried the Little Rock rebral, to view him as having credentials integration crisis, Brubeck mounted his as a classical musician, and as being re- own private protest, even as he main- spectable because he was white. This fa- tained his public silence. On September cilitated Brubeck’s entrance to spaces 10, small regional papers around Texas (including colleges around the country began to report that Brubeck and white and segregated institutions in the South) jazz impresario Norman Granz had can- and audiences to which, as a jazz musi- celled their upcoming concert dates at cian, he otherwise would not have had the State Fair Park auditorium in Dal- access.9 However, that same relationship las, Texas. Brubeck and his quartet were to respectability and intellect that came scheduled to perform on September 29, with Brubeck’s whiteness may have also and Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic was had the side effect of making Brubeck’s to perform on October 1. As Ingrid Mon- protest all the more surprising to South- son explains, Granz had been cancelling ern universities and their administrators. Jazz at the Philharmonic concert dates at segregated venues like the State Fair By 1957, Brubeck’s relationship to white Park since the late 1940s, and according culture through image and sound had to newspaper reports, had cancelled this been well established by critics, audienc- date for that reason as well.10 es, promoters, and his own statements, But Brubeck neglected to explain why and Brubeck, as with many musicians, he cancelled the date; all newspaper ac- had made no public announcement or accounts simply write that “Brubeck sent tion against racial prejudice or segrega- word only that his mixed group would be tion. At that time, the civil rights move- unavailable”–an unusual statement, giv- ment was just beginning to take root, en that at that time, Brubeck was regu- spurred in part by the 1954 Brown v. Board larly performing with white bassist Nor- of Education decision, which declared seg- man Bates.11 Brubeck’s cancellation of regation in schools to be illegal, the 1955 the date was only briefly mentioned in murder of Emmett Till, and the 1955– regional papers in Texas, Arizona, and 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Howev- Southern California; major newspapers er, it was the 1957 Little Rock integration such as The New York Times and Los Ange- crisis that garnered the attention of many les Times and black newspapers including jazz musicians. On September 4, nine Af- the Chicago Defender, Daily Defender, and rican American students attempted to New York Amsterdam News mention noth- enter the formerly all-white Little Rock ing about the concert. Brubeck’s Septem- Central High School. However, Arkan- ber 29 concert, the cancellation of which sas Governor Orval Faubus had ordered was announced just one week after the

148 (2) Spring 2019 55 Dave beginning of the Little Rock crisis, is an tent to which musical and political mean- Brubeck’s unstudied moment in Brubeck’s perfor- ing was made at the level of the individu- Southern Strategy mance history that reveals a nearly inau- al; that Brubeck’s cancellation was mean- dible moment in Brubeck’s move toward ingful to Furgerson was enough for her, race activism. even if it was an underpublicized, ambig- By all accounts, the reason for Bru- uous, or invisible act to most of the coun- beck’s cancellation of this single concert try. For Furgerson, it was an affirmation was ambiguous; any publicly stated views of what she had discussed with Brubeck on social justice and racial prejudice were at her mother’s kitchen table, writing, nonexistent. However, a fan letter writ- All this is to thank you for acting like a de- ten to Brubeck a few weeks after the can- cent, feeling human being. You can never cellation suggests that three years prior know how much it means to me to know to Brubeck’s infamous cancellation of his that there are people [who] react positively $40,000 tour of the South, Brubeck was to injustices. Too many of us give lip service already protesting segregation, howev- to it. It’s much easier and less convenient er quietly. In the letter, dated October 22, and more comfortable. It is a terrible thing 1957, Betty Jean Furgerson, a black wom- to have to deny people the beauty of your an from Waterloo, Iowa, thanked Bru- music because they fear unintelligently. beck for cancelling the concert “because of the policy of segregated seating.”12 Furgerson’s words speak to struggles Furgerson’s relationship with Brubeck for racial equality across the century, and went beyond that of a simple fan who in her final sentence, she links Brubeck’s had once asked Brubeck for an auto- music, and his live performances in par- graph. Her family had close connections ticular, to a broader political effort to dis- to members of the Duke Ellington Or- rupt segregationist practices. chestra, with whom Brubeck had toured, One year later, on October 19, 1958, jazz and frequently hosted jazz musicians in critic Ralph Gleason reported that Bru- their home beginning in the late 1940s, beck had turned down a tour of South feeding them and offering them relax- Africa worth $17,000 (approximately ation.13 Iowa musician Roger Maxwell $145,000 today) because the apartheid- recalled meeting Brubeck at Furgerson’s era South African government had re- family’s house in the 1950s, explaining, fused to allow Eugene Wright to perform “It isn’t everyday that you can walk into a with the group–or even to enter the friend’s kitchen and see an international- country. Gleason’s article in the Daily ly renowned musician sitting in a break- Boston Globe, which was subsequently fast nook. Mrs. Furgerson greeted me covered in the Los Angeles Sentinel and the and Betty Jean said, ‘Roger, have you met Philadelphia Tribune, both black newspa- Dave?’”14 Even though Brubeck had not pers, focused on an interview with Bru- told the press why he cancelled the con- beck regarding the cancellation. In it, Bru- cert, Furgerson’s account connected his beck explained the effect his 1958 State actions to a conversation the two had in Department tour of the Iron Curtain had the privacy of her family home. As she on his understanding of racial prejudice explained, “I know from talking with you as detrimental to American foreign inter- that you have deep feelings about such ests within a Cold War context: “Preju- practices.” dice is indescribable. To me, it is the rea- Reading Furgerson’s letter alongside son we would lose the world. I have been Brubeck’s actions demonstrates the ex- through Asia and India and the Middle

56 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences East and we have to realize how many allow Brubeck to perform without los- Kelsey A. K. brown-skinned people there are in this ing state funding: the president of the Klotz world. Prejudice here or in South Afri- college, John Messick, telephoned North ca is setting up our world for one terrible Carolina Governor Luther Hodges, who let down.”15 These words were later re- apparently reminded Messick that “be- printed, without the explicit reference to cause the school had signed a contract for South Africa, to explain why Brubeck had the performance, it would have to pay the refused to appear in the South without band whether they played or not.”16 Ac- Wright in 1960. Though Brubeck’s can- cording to Brubeck, Brubeck’s argument cellation of the South African tour was swayed the dean, who announced to the an explicit foreign policy message from audience that the Brubeck Quartet would a former U.S. State Department–spon- appear after all; Tucker told the waiting sored cultural ambassador, coverage was crowd that “Mr. Brubeck and his quartet again nonexistent in mainstream papers leave tomorrow for a State Department like The New York Times and jazz maga- tour of Europe and we want them to tell zines like DownBeat. the world that North Carolina is not Lit- While Brubeck’s cancellation of his tle Rock.”17 Brubeck’s near miss result- South African tour is notable, its covered in institutional change at East Caroli- age revealed an earlier near cancellation na College: later that month, the Board of a Brubeck performance at East Caroli- of Trustees enacted a new policy, one that na College (now East Carolina Universi- no longer banned black performers out- ty). This event offers a glimpse into the right, and placed the issue of campus per- goals Brubeck had for his Southern performances by black musicians at the dis- formances with Wright, as well as the cretion of the administration, essentially, confidence he might have gained from a though not officially, allowing black mu- successful protest. On February 5, 1958, sicians to perform on campus.18 the Brubeck Quartet was preparing to go Within the context of the civil rights onstage in the ironically named Wright movement, Brubeck’s 1957 cancellation Auditorium when they were stopped by and 1958 near miss may seem small; after the Dean of Student Affairs for East Car- all, it was only Furgerson’s insider knowl- olina College, James Tucker. Tucker in- edge that allowed her to recognize Bru- formed Brubeck that the school’s poli- beck’s cancellation as an act of protest, cy would not allow Wright to perform. not any public statement from Brubeck Brubeck’s account centered on his expe- himself, and the few papers that covered riences with his 1958 tour abroad; he re- the incidents at East Carolina College did ported to Gleason that he told Tucker so many months after the fact. Howev- “that the next morning we were to leave er, though three years is a short period for Europe sponsored by the State De- historically, the difference between the partment to represent this country and racial politics and activism of 1957 and one of the best things we could do was to 1960 is vast: this was the period during show that prejudice was not everywhere which the first lunch counter sit-ins be- in the United States, as we were a mixed gan in Wichita, Kansas (1958), Oklahoma group. And they wanted to do this to us City, Oklahoma (1958), and Greensboro, the night before!” North Carolina (1960), before spreading A retrospective by East Carolina Uni- across the South in 1960 to Richmond, versity demonstrates the levels of bu- Virginia; Nashville, Tennessee; and At- reaucracy the college went through to lanta, Georgia, to name a few high-profile

148 (2) Spring 2019 57 Dave protests, in addition to Northern cities, choice but to cancel the performance. In Brubeck’s such as Waterloo, Iowa, where Furger- press reports, Brubeck called the school’s Southern 19 Strategy son lived. The visibility of Brubeck’s move to cancel the concert “unconstitu- protests likewise gradually shifted during tional and ridiculous,” and he insisted this time period. As Brubeck continued that he would not perform with a white to tour across the South, and with the bassist “for a million dollars.”21 Instead, permanent addition of Eugene Wright Variety reported that Brubeck played a to his quartet, Brubeck eventually made concert at Atlanta’s Magnolia Ballroom, public his commitment to combatting ra- a black venue that became an integral cial prejudice. staging ground for civil rights meetings.22 Brubeck’s cancelled concert reverber- Five months after news of the South Af- ated across the uga campus as students rican tour broke, the Brubeck Quartet took sides debating integration and mu- was scheduled to perform at the Univer- sical performance. The ensuing conver- sity of Georgia (uga) in Athens, Geor- sations make clear the complexity of the gia, on March 4, 1959. Shortly before the student body’s feelings toward integra- concert, Stuart Woods, a senior sociol- tion in an era and place that tended to sim- ogy major and the head of uga’s brand plify them. Woods immediately began new Jazz Society, received publicity pho- a petition to repeal the university’s poli- tos for the quartet that included Wright, cy requiring only segregated performing and he immediately knew there would groups; but by April, it was clear that his be a problem. Two years earlier, in 1957, petition had failed. Though the uga Stu- uga had instituted a policy banning in- dent Council denied his request for the tegrated entertainment groups from per- body to sponsor a campus-wide poll to as- forming on campus; similar policies were certain student opinion on the policy, the implemented in schools across the South Student Council also denied a counter- following the Brown v. Board of Education motion that asked the group to make pub- decision and the crisis in Little Rock in lic its support of the policy.23 Students attempts to formally institute segrega- wrote editorials in the independent stu- tionist policies that had previously been dent newspaper The Red and Black both in standard practice. Furthermore, such support of Brubeck and in support of the pivotal historical moments also affected policy preventing Brubeck’s appearance. performers’ engagement with racial poli- Students in favor of the Brubeck concert tics on the bandstand. As Monson writes, argued that the quartet and other musical “If in the mid-1940s playing with a mixed groups be allowed to play on the basis of band was taken as a sign of a progressive skill and musical worth (a version of the racial attitude, by the mid-1950s a per- “let’s keep politics out of music” argu- former had to refuse to play to segregated ment), or that students be allowed more audiences to meet the rising moral stan- autonomy to set their own policies (a riff dards of the civil rights movement.”20 on states’ rights rhetoric frequently used Stuart Woods had seen the Brubeck in the South to fight against civil rights Quartet perform two years earlier, when laws at the federal level). white bassist Norman Bates was a regu- For students and administrators against lar member, and therefore had not antici- Brubeck’s concert, Brubeck’s near-per- pated any problems. With the addition of formance at uga ignited what historian Wright and uga’s new policies, howev- Carol Anderson refers to as “white rage.” er, uga’s administration gave Woods no As Anderson explains,

58 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences White rage is not about visible violence, but albums full of Southern songs: Gone with Kelsey A. K. rather it works its way through the courts, the Wind, recorded in April 1959 and re- Klotz the legislatures, and a range of government leased in August, and Southern Scene, re- bureaucracies. . . . White rage doesn’t have corded in September and October 1959 to wear sheets, burn crosses, or take to the and released in the spring of 1960. Gone streets. Working the halls of power, it can with the Wind, recorded less than two achieve its ends far more effectively, far months after the uga cancellation and more destructively.24 as a commercial and financial safeguard against the experimental (and ultimate- White rage, Anderson argues, is of- ly wildly popular) Time Out (1959), paid ten triggered by black advancement: “It particular tribute to the state of Geor- is not the mere presence of black people gia through the inclusion of both its ti- that is the problem; rather, it is black- tle track and “Georgia on My Mind.” As ness with ambition, with drive, with pur- Brubeck explained to Ralph Gleason af- pose, with aspirations, and with demands ter schools had cancelled his 1960 tour, for full and equal citizenship.” In other “Let me reiterate: we want to play in the words, those protesting Wright’s pres- South. . . .Therefore, we appeal to them to ence in the quartet objected to the no- help us.”26 tion that Brubeck could not find a white Brubeck’s plan, then, was to motivate musician who could equal Wright’s mu- Southern audiences to accept his inte- sical ability. White rage was palpable on grated group through performances of the pages of The Red and Black: Robert In- popular Southern songs; in doing so, gram, a uga student, suggested that all of Brubeck again banked on his ability to at- Brubeck’s records be broken, explaining tract “new” audiences to jazz. With Gone that, “Accepting the skill of a Negro per- with the Wind and Southern Scene, Brubeck former and even going so far as appreci- and his quartet-mates specifically chose ating it is a giant step toward integration. popular Southern songs, including well- We cannot afford to be the least bit broad known minstrel songs by Stephen Fos- minded–not even for the sake of art.”25 ter (“Swanee River,” “Camptown Rac- The support that uga’s policy banning es,” and “Oh Susanna”), jazz standards integrated performing groups received (“Gone with the Wind” and “Basin across campus should not be surpris- Street Blues”), mainstream hits (“Little ing. After all, as many in the black press Rock Getaway,” “Georgia on My Mind,” would point out, the policy was only two and “Deep in the Heart of Texas”), and years old; in other words, it was enacted popular songs written by white compos- in the same year as the Little Rock inte- ers from the perspective of black musi- gration crisis. Fear, however unfounded, cians (“The Lonesome Road,” “Ol’ Man fueled the rage that ultimately prompt- River,” and “Short’nin Bread”). Near- ed Brubeck’s own struggle against uga’s ly all of the songs performed across both segregationist policies–and further, pol- albums had been performed by popu- icies across the South. lar musicians, such as Bing Crosby, Ray Charles, Julie London, and Frank Sina- Brubeck’s experience with uga set the tra, in addition to well-known jazz musi- stage for his 1960 Southern tour. In the cians like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzger- lead up to the 1960 concert cancellations, ald, Sarah Vaughan, and Miles Davis. The Brubeck mounted a direct campaign for diverse mix of original composers and Southern audiences that included two subsequent performers in part indicate

148 (2) Spring 2019 59 Dave Brubeck’s interest in promoting musi- inently on these albums, particularly on Brubeck’s cal integration to the widest possible “Ol’ Man River” and “Happy Times,” Southern Strategy audience. is remarkable, and represents Bru- Whereas in Brubeck’s early career, his beck’s most explicit attempt to highlight image and music had been described and Wright’s musical contribution within promoted as decidedly “white,” with the quartet directly to his Southern au- Gone with the Wind and Southern Scene, Bru- diences. For those “in the know,” these beck explicitly advanced an integrated vi- songs represented moments of sonic in- sual image by making Wright especially tegration; for those who were not, the al- visible on both album covers. Gone with bum demonstrated Brubeck’s colorblind the Wind’s cover artwork depicts the Bru- approach to music, in which white and beck Quartet on a covered pavilion sur- black musicians could presumably freely rounded by lush green trees, whose gran- cross what sound studies scholar Jennifer diose archways and pillars evoke a mas- Lynn Stoever has called the “sonic color sive Southern plantation. Brubeck and line.”27 Simultaneously, Brubeck at- Desmond, the group’s more well-known tempted to demonstrate why Wright was members, are foregrounded, with Morel- essential to his quartet’s performances; lo and Wright standing at a pillar in the and further, that Brubeck not only would background. The color photo could not not replace Wright, but he could not re- be clearer: this is an integrated quartet. place Wright. The cover of the later Southern Scene as- According to Brubeck’s autobiogra- serts the group’s integration even more pher, Fred Hall, and liner notes for Gone plainly. Amid illustrations of stereotyp- with the Wind written by Teo Macero, ical scenes of the South (a plantation Wright chose to perform “Ol’ Man Riv- home and a steamboat) is a photo of the er.”28 The Brubeck Quartet’s version is a quartet in the shade of a tree on the bank bass feature that begins in a quick tempo of a river. Desmond, Wright, and Mo- with Wright performing the melody line, rello are seated together, wearing iden- before a sudden transition to a half-time, tical black suits, while Brubeck, in his bluesy improvisation from Wright. The gray leader’s suit, leans over them, hand song ends in a sudden and unaccompa- on Morello’s shoulder. All four men are nied cadenza that tapers off as Wright de- looking at the camera and smiling, and scends in register, as if Wright’s solo, like Wright, surrounded by his three white the Mississippi River, will “just keep rol- bandmates, is at the center of the image. lin’ along.” As musicologist Todd Decker The fact that apparently no one either ob- writes, “Ol’ Man River” is “at its core– jected to or noticed Wright’s presence on about the experience of being black in a Gone with the Wind prior to the 1960 tour segregated America.”29 The Brubeck ver- suggests that Brubeck’s image had pre- sion maintained the primacy of Wright’s viously been established as sufficiently experience in performing a song that had, white to render such an inclusion invis- in its more than thirty-year history, been ible–particularly to school administra- used as both a song of protest and a song tors who may not have followed the quar- of Southern nostalgia. In doing so, the tet closely. quartet forced unwitting Southern segre- Throughout the 1950s, Brubeck’s bass- gationists to hear a song about the black ists were the least frequently featured experience in the South from a black members of the quartet. Therefore, Bru- man, supported by his white bandmates beck’s decision to feature Wright prom- who insisted on Wright’s integral musical

60 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences position within the quartet. That they did though Brubeck described Wright only Kelsey A. K. so in an album packaged for commercial in complimentary terms, the descrip- Klotz audiences simultaneously cushioned the tions also adhered closely to negative ste- quartet from any overt retaliation from reotypes of black men as harmless to the segregationists, and allowed Brubeck to point of subservience: an “Uncle Tom” advance his own subtle political ideology. stereotype represented solely through Brubeck not only highlighted Wright’s Brubeck’s descriptions (not from any in- musical contributions, but also empha- terview or quote from Wright) that nev- sized the qualities of his personality that ertheless may have worked to Brubeck anyone, even audiences outside the mu- and Wright’s advantage with Southern sic business, would understand as valu- audiences ranging from squeamish to en- able character traits. According to lin- raged at the thought of the quartet’s inte- er notes written by Brubeck for “Happy gration. Nonetheless, in these liner notes, Times,” a Wright original and feature on written just months after uga had can- Southern Scene, the song offered listeners a celled its concert over Wright’s presence chance not only to hear Wright’s compo- in the quartet, Brubeck makes the case sition, but to get to know Wright: that Wright is a crucial member of the “Happy Times,” an original by Gene group, explicitly marketing integration Wright, is typical of the relaxed happy to Southern audiences. sound which has been the antidote to the history of trouble expressed in “Nobody As Brubeck navigated early civil rights Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” [the pre- protests, he worked to find an approach vious track]. I think Gene’s bass solo ex- that suited his image and career, which pressed the Wright attitude toward life– he and his wife, managers, record pro- amiable, relaxed and smiling.30 ducers, and advertisers had cultivated for nearly a decade. The result was a new mu- In these notes, Brubeck maps the sical and promotional approach for Bru- easygoing and upbeat theme of “Hap- beck, one that leveraged his whiteness to py Times” onto Wright’s personality. To support integration efforts in the South. hear this song is essentially to enter into As Brubeck’s concert cancellations be- conversation with Wright: the arrange- came more visible, Brubeck became em- ment chosen by the quartet makes it dif- boldened, and his indignation with pol- ficult for listeners to engage with any of icy-makers at Southern colleges and the other musicians, as Brubeck and Mo- universities met the white rage of the seg- rello perform accompanying roles and regationists protesting his performances. Desmond lays out. This allows Wright’s As Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter and ar- voice, performed through his bass, to be- tistic director for Jazz at Lincoln Center, come the auditory focal point. once said, “[Brubeck] is important be- Brubeck does mention the other mem- cause he stood up for Civil Rights, when bers of the quartet in the liner notes, but many of us–sat down.”31 As a white man, these primarily focus on Desmond’s re- Brubeck was able to simultaneously voice actions to a certain take or a technique his anger and maintain a nonthreatening used by Morello, offering little in the way image in ways that, as Marsalis implies, of information about Desmond and Mo- black protesters typically could not. Ul- rello’s personalities and, in particular, timately, this period in Brubeck’s career do not focus on positive traits in as di- is important because it allows deep con- rect a manner as with Wright. However, sideration of who Brubeck spoke for and

148 (2) Spring 2019 61 Dave who he spoke over, who listened, and for criticism, Wright maintained his diplo- Brubeck’s whom his actions as a civil rights advo- matic stance in an interview decades lat- Southern Strategy cate were meaningful. er, as he recounted the story of a school Certainly, the first person for whom that had initially refused to allow him Brubeck spoke was Wright, over whom to perform: “I won’t say the name–that Brubeck cancelled the South African way nobody’ll get hurt.”35 tour, uga concert, and 1960 Southern It seems as if, at least initially, Wright tour. But while Brubeck received glow- had little say in Brubeck’s move toward ing praise for doing so, Wright largely race activism–even when Brubeck’s pro- stayed quiet. In fact, Brubeck seemed to tests positioned Wright as an activist as have shone a spotlight on issues Wright, well. For example, in a 1981 interview, a Chicago native, would rather not define Brubeck spoke about the concert at East him. An article in the Pittsburgh Courier by Carolina College, admitting that Wright George Pitts quotes Wright as explaining had not known that the school was seg- that, “Whatever Dave does is okey [sic] regated and did not want to allow him to by me.”32 Wright continued, “If he wants play; the school had approached Brubeck to make the trip without me, it would be about the issue alone.36 Further, Wright okey. I know he’s all right, and I know if had not known that part of the compro- Brubeck decides to do something it will mise in allowing the quartet to perform not be because of any feeling of his own at East Carolina College was that Wright on race.” Wright’s comments display stay in the background–so when Bru- considerable trust in Brubeck’s decisions, beck called him to the front of the group but they did not have the impact many for a solo, Wright went. Likewise, Bru- black journalists, including Pitts, desired. beck actually knew about the South- While Brubeck was lauded for his ac- ern universities’ requirements for an all- tions, Wright’s experience with the press white group: in a letter from abc book- was more closely related to the criticisms ing agent Bob Bundy to Dave Brubeck faced by Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, written three months prior to the can- and Louis Armstrong when they failed cellations, Bundy writes that the organi- to live up to the expectations the African zation responsible for the Southern tour American community held for highly vis- “will not accept . . . a mixed group.”37 Even ible black men–expectations that were though Brubeck likely had no intention significantly higher for black musicians of replacing Wright, he continued with than for white musicians.33 Wright was his plans for the tour. Throughout this subtly criticized by the black press for his period, Brubeck made decisions that po- comments: Pitts explained Wright’s ap- sitioned both he and Wright as race ac- parently unsatisfying statements thusly: tivists, without seeming to understand “Wright finally found an opportuni- the difference between what it meant ty to express his feelings, but all Ameri- for a white man to protest racial injustice cans knew his expression would be that in front of a white audience, and what it of most Negroes who long have tasted the meant for a black man to do so. slurs of the Southland.” The Baltimore Wright had the potential to be the fo- Afro-American referred to Wright, a fair- cus of this story, and it certainly seems as ly dark-skinned man, as a “tan bassist,” if some audiences wanted him to be. But which suggests that the writer meant to the fact that it was Brubeck at the cen- criticize Wright for not being supportive ter of this story, with Wright in the lime- enough to racial justice.34 Despite such light, demonstrates the privilege Brubeck

62 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences had in potentially pushing Wright into a take the steps he did. Had Brubeck been Kelsey A. K. protest about which he was at best am- true to Wright’s voice, he may not have Klotz bivalent. Brubeck’s centrality to the sto- cancelled any concerts; as Wright’s com- ry, however, also offered a unique chal- ments above suggest, Wright knew Bru- lenge to audiences unused to hearing beck was “all right.” But though Wright a white man explicitly position a black was the reason for Brubeck’s advocacy, man as an integral part of his own ca- Brubeck ultimately did not take this stand reer. Within the context of the early civil for Wright, but for people like Betty Jean rights era, Brubeck’s voice–as a band- Furgerson, whose letter to Brubeck made leader, as an established musician, and as clear her belief that his actions could sup- a white man whose career and image had port her perspective. He spoke direct- been constructed around implicit norms ly to his Southern supporters, appealing of whiteness–simply weighed more than to their musical tastes, to make the case Wright’s for many black and white audi- for musical integration. He inspired stu- ences, members of the music industry, dents like Stuart Woods, who attempt- and Southern audiences. Further, Bru- ed to reverse uga’s segregationist pol- beck benefited from the lower standard icy, and institutions like East Carolina to which these audiences held him, as a College, which reconsidered discrimina- white performer, on issues of civil rights. tory policies that prevented black musi- William Pollard of the Los Angeles Sentinel, cians from performing. And, ultimate- writing to commend Brubeck, agreed, ly, Brubeck took this stand for himself, arguing that “the majority race needs to possibly for reasons based in both princi- lead the way in this respect,” emphasiz- ple and self-interest. In interviews looking that “the perpetuation of racial dis- ing back on this period, Brubeck’s indig- crimination is of their making.”38 In oth- nance at justice unfulfilled is clear; how- er words, while it may have been Bru- ever, his fear for his own livelihood is also beck’s responsibility to protest racial apparent. But even if Brubeck believed he prejudice and segregation, the response could have lost his career by confronting to his actions reflected his privilege. segregation more directly, and even if he However, there lies an uneasy tension believed he was making a broader stand between Brubeck’s outspoken support of against racism, it was Brubeck–his im- integration and Wright’s relative silence. age and his legacy–that benefited most That tension highlights a primary issue in from his decisions. Brubeck’s advocacy white advocacy for racial justice causes: relied on his power and privilege within namely, that in supporting those whose the mainstream music industry to craft voices have been systematically silenced albums and marketing approaches that throughout history, it can be easy to speak amplified the music and beliefs of the over the very voices advocates mean to African Americans with whom he had amplify. Brubeck’s actions and rheto- grown close. In doing so, Brubeck har- ric were meaningful to countless fans nessed his white image in order to once and organizations, including the Cali- again bring new audiences to jazz–and fornia chapter of the naacp, who wrote to his own music–in the segregationist to DownBeat and Brubeck, thanking Bru- South. beck for taking a visible stand against prejudice, and clearly Wright supported Brubeck’s decisions as bandleader. How- ever, for Wright, Brubeck did not need to

148 (2) Spring 2019 63 Dave author’s note Brubeck’s Southern I gratefully acknowledge the Bill and Carol Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory Strategy University, which supported the writing of this essay. Research for this essay was generous- ly funded by the Brubeck Collection Research Travel Grant from the Holt-Atherton Special Collections at the University of the Pacific. Many thanks are also due to Ingrid Monson and Stephen Crist for their thoughtful comments.

endnotes 1 Ralph J. Gleason, “An Appeal from Dave Brubeck,” DownBeat, February 1960. 2 One exception was Norman Granz, who, as founder of Jazz at the Philharmonic, had been cancelling concerts at venues with segregated audiences since the 1940s. For Granz, Brubeck’s insistence on performing in an integrated ensemble had not gone far enough: by 1960, Bru- beck should have insisted that the audiences be integrated. Norman Granz, “The Brubeck Stand: A Divergent View By Norman Granz,” DownBeat, July 1960. 3 Nat Hentoff, “Review of Jazz at Oberlin, by Dave Brubeck,” DownBeat, December 1953; Dave Brubeck, “The New Jazz Audience,” Playboy, August 1955; Ralph J. Gleason, “Brubeck: ‘I Did Do Some Things First,’” DownBeat, September 1957; C. H. Garrigues, “Brubeck’s Fans Learned About Jazz in College,” San Francisco Examiner, November 3, 1957; and “Jazz Climbs Up the Social Ladder–With a Mighty Shove from Dave Brubeck,” New York National Enquir- er, March 16, 1958. 4 Dave Garroway, Friday with Garroway, November 12, 1954, nbc Radio Collection, Motion Pic- ture, Broadcasting & Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 5 Gleason, “Brubeck,” 14. 6 Mariana Torgovnick argues that Homer’s Odyssey anticipated later colonial encounters with the “primitive” Other. However, such binaries were widely used across the centuries by phi- losophers, historians, and critics to designate and denigrate an Other, whether defined by race, gender, sexuality, or other characteristics. Also see René Descartes, “Part IV,” in A Dis- course on the Method, trans. Ian Maclean (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 28; Simon Frith, “Rhythm: Race, Sex, and the Body,” in Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996), 123–144; Ted Gioia, “Jazz and the Primitivist Myth,” in The Imperfect Art (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988); and Mar- iana Torgovnick, Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (Chicago: University of Chi- cago Press, 1990). 7 Arnold Shaw, “West Coast Jazz,” Esquire, September 1955, 127. 8 The Modern Jazz Quartet employed strict fugal arrangements and a blend of improvised and precomposed counterpoint, particularly between John Lewis (piano) and Milt Jackson (vi- braphone). These include a strict fugue, “Vendôme,” and the quartet’s direct quotation of J. S. Bach’s Musical Offering in “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise.” 9 Of course, being called “intellectual” was not a benefit within most jazz circles; “intellect” countered the improvisation required for “authentic” jazz performances. Therefore, Bru- beck tended to promote the spontaneity of his music over his precomposition, explaining many times throughout his career that “composition is selective improvisation” (a quote he misattributed to Igor Stravinsky). 10 Ingrid Monson, Freedom Sounds: Civil Rights Call Out to Jazz and Africa (Oxford: Oxford Univer- sity Press, 2010), 63–64. The Dallas State Fair Park was a site of frequent protest for black ac- tivists fighting segregation on the grounds. In addition to the segregation of many of the rides and food establishments within the park, the State Fair held a “Negro Achievement Day,” the only day in which black patrons could fully participate in the State Fair. Martin Herman Kuhlman, “The Civil Rights Movement in Texas: Desegregation of Public Accommodations, 1950–1964” (Ph.D. diss., Texas Tech University, 1994); Donald Payton, “Timeline: A Concise

64 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences History: Black Dallas since 1842,” D Magazine, June 1998, http://www.dmagazine.com/ Kelsey A. K. publications/d-magazine/1998/june/timeline-a-concise-history; and Kathryn Siefker, Klotz “naacp Youth Council Picket Line, 1955 Texas Sate Fair,” Bullock Texas State History Museum, https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/artifacts/naacp-state-fair-spotlight-012315. 11 “Brubeck Cancels Dallas Booking,” The Daily Journal, Commerce, Texas, September 10, 1957; “Brubeck Band Cancels Out Dallas Date,” The Times, San Mateo, California, September 10, 1957; “Jazz Combos Cancel Dallas Bookings,” Tucson Daily Citizen, September 10, 1957; “Jazz Groups Skip Trips over South,” Corsicana Daily Sun, September 12, 1957; and “Jazz Concerts Cancelled over Racial Issue,” The Galveston Daily News, September 12, 1957. 12 B. J. Furgerson, personal letter to Dave Brubeck, October 22, 1957, Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library, Stockton, California. 13 Betty Jean Furgerson, “Jazz in Iowa: Betty Jean (bj) Furgerson’s Memories,” Iowa Public Tele- vision, http://www.iptv.org/jazz/bj_furgerson.cfm (accessed October 31, 2015). The Elling- ton Orchestra’s frequent stops could have been due to policies of segregation and discrimi- nation in the area. Even though Iowa passed one of the first state statutes banning discrim- ination in the 1880s, the statute was not enforced in the 1950s, and many restaurants, cafés, and hotels in Waterloo–one of the state’s most segregated cities, then and now–denied service to blacks and other minority citizens. As Furgerson remembers, “I learned they came to those dinners because we only had family members other than band members. They knew they did not have to be on stage and/or talk or be the entertainment. They could relax!” Bruce Fehn, “The Only Hope We Had: United Packinghouse Workers Local 46 and the Struggle for Racial Equality in Waterloo, Iowa, 1948–1960,” The Annals of Iowa 54 (3) (Sum- mer 1995): 185–216; Kyle Munson, “Black Iowa: Waterloo Rallies to Combat Violence, Ra- cial Divides,” Des Moines Register, July 13, 2015, http://dmreg.co/1IRVhIe (accessed Novem- ber 28, 2015); and Theresa E. Shirey, “Common Patters in an Uncommon Place: The Civil Rights Movement and Persistence of Racial Inequality in Waterloo, Iowa” (honors project, Bowdoin College, 2014). 14 Roger Maxwell, “Jazz in Iowa: Backstage Conversations, Impressions and Remembrances, My Experiences with Popular and Jazz Artists,” Iowa Public Television, http://www.iptv .org/jazz/backstage.cfm#brubeck (accessed October 31, 2015). 15 Ralph Gleason, “Brubeck Cancels South Africa Because of Negro Artist Ban,” Daily Boston Globe, October 19, 1958. 16 Steve Tuttle, “When Music Broke the Color Barrier,” East 12 (1) (2013): 14. 17 Gleason, “Brubeck Cancels South Africa.” 18 Tuttle, “When Music Broke the Color Barrier,” 14. 19 Fehn, “The Only Hope We Had,” 213. 20 Monson, Freedom Sounds, 61. 21 John Keasler, “Jazz Society Cancels Brubeck Appearance for Campus Concert,” The Red and Black, February 26, 1959. 22 “U. of Ga. Nixes Brubeck (Bassist a Negro) but ok at Atlanta ‘Race’ Spot,” Variety, March 4, 1959, 49. 23 “Council Discusses Jazz Club Petition,” The Red and Black, April 16, 1959. 24 Carol Anderson, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide (New York: Bloomsbury, 2016), 3. 25 Robert Ingram, “Letters to the Editor,” The Red and Black, February 26, 1959. 26 Gleason, “An Appeal from Dave Brubeck.” 27 Jennifer Lynn Stoever, The Sonic Color Line: Race and the Cultural Politics of Listening (New York: New York University Press, 2016).

148 (2) Spring 2019 65 Dave 28 Fred M. Hall, It’s About Time: The Dave Brubeck Story (Fayetteville, Ark.: University of Arkan- Brubeck’s sas Press, 1996), 63; and Teo Macero, liner notes for The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Gone with the Southern Wind, Columbia Records, 1959. Strategy 29 Todd Decker, Who Should Sing “Ol’ Man River”? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 14. 30 Dave Brubeck, liner notes for Southern Scene, Columbia Records, 1960. 31 Wynton Marsalis, “The Life and Music of Dave Brubeck,” concert featuring the Jazz at Lin- coln Center Orchestra, April 12, 2014, Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, https://youtu.be/PQ-yXQItCGg (accessed October 30, 2015). As for Brubeck, he firmly believed that jazz had “always been an example set to the world of true integration.” “Editori- al,” San Francisco Chronicle, n.d., c. 1960, Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collec- tions, University of the Pacific Library, Stockton, California. 32 George E. Pitts, “Give Brubeck Credit for a Slap at Bias,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 12, 1960, 12. The “[sic]” is original to Pitts’s quotation of Wright. 33 Monson, Freedom Sounds, 29–65. 34 “Tan Bassist given ok in Memphis,” Afro-American, January 23, 1960. 35 Hall, It’s About Time, 87. 36 Dave Brubeck, interview with Kerry Frumkin, wfmt, October 17, 1981, Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library, Stockton, California. 37 Bob Bundy to Dave Brubeck, personal letter, October 6, 1959, Brubeck Collection, Holt-Ather- ton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library, Stockton, California. Many thanks to Stephen Crist for bringing this document to my attention. 38 William E. Pollard, “Labor’s Side,” Los Angeles Sentinel, January 28, 1960.

66 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences