Dave Brubeck
The Dave Brubeck Quartet in Poland
As the Jazz Ambassador Program expanded and new artists (specifically non-African Americans) were added, the mission of the program continued to shift beyond specific racial overtones. Artists such as Benny Goodman were added in late 1956 and Dave Brubeck in 1958, and the idea of promoting "jazz as democracy" took full root.[1] For Brubeck, the feelings of serving as a jazz ambassador were similar to those expressed by other artists. He listed his reasons for participation as being of service to his government, and aiding “in introducing jazz music to countries where it had never been heard before.”[2] For Brubeck however, the State Department tours were at “their core, a business deal” designed for “considerable publicity value and the potential for future revenue.”[3] Trained as a classical pianist, Brubeck had a uniquely different approach to jazz from such artists as Gillespie and Armstrong. The Dave Brubeck Quartet was often promoted as an all-white group, which Secretary of State John Dulles described as"preferable, as this side-steps regime propaganda linking jazz to oppression of Negroes in America." [4] Brubeck, his manager, and his Quartet never made such an issue of racial prejudice, preferring to “adhere to the prevalent liberal view of jazz as ‘colorblind’ music.”[5]
Concert Program from Eros Theatre in Bombay, 1957
This issue raised a major problem prior to the Quartet’s departure for a State Department tour in 1958. Brubeck’s bass player had decided not to participate in the tour, and was subsequently replaced by Eugene Wright, an experienced bassist and an African American. This obviously was not an issue to the Quartet, as their manager exclaimed they were “extremely fortunate” to obtain Wright.[6] As they participated in a short tour of the East Coast prior to their departure, they had been billed to play at East Carolina College in Greenville, North Carolina. Due to prevailing Jim Crow laws, interracial groups were prohibited from performing; therefore the racial-mixed Quartet was unable to play. Brubeck expressed that he "hated to leave my country thinking we couldn't appear here but could go behind the Iron Curtain." [7] The president of the university contacted the governor who directed him to let them play but to keep Wright in the background. Instead, Brubeck asked Wright to play at the front of the stage, thus "integrating that school in nothing flat." [8] This small example emphasizes the larger theme that ran through the entire program as artists struggled to find acceptance for their music at home, yet enjoyed international acceptance and prominence.
[1] Stephen A. Crist, “Jazz As Democracy? Dave Brubeck and Cold War Politics,” The Journal of Musicology 26, no. 2 (2009): 138.
[2] Ibid., 141.
[3] Ibid., 141, 144.
[4] Ibid., 149.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid., 148.
[7] Ibid., 149.
[8] Ibid.
Photos from http://www.meridian.org/jazzambassadors and http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/brubeck1958/id/171/rec/35
[1] Stephen A. Crist, “Jazz As Democracy? Dave Brubeck and Cold War Politics,” The Journal of Musicology 26, no. 2 (2009): 138.
[2] Ibid., 141.
[3] Ibid., 141, 144.
[4] Ibid., 149.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid., 148.
[7] Ibid., 149.
[8] Ibid.
Photos from http://www.meridian.org/jazzambassadors and http://digitalcollections.pacific.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/brubeck1958/id/171/rec/35