Dave Brubeck's Southern Strategy

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 engage- ment 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. © 2019 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences doi:10.1162/DAED_a_01742 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 segrega- tion 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.

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