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Jazz and Race |
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The record of the principal jazz orchestra leaders in integrating their personnel has varied greatly from band to hand. Benny Goodman has continued to mix his orchestras and combos freely; at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1957 his sidemen included Buck Clayton, Budd Johnson, Kenny Burrell and Israel Crosby.
Tommy Dorscy, who hired Sy Oliver as staff arranger in 1939 and occasionally presented him as vocalist, had Charlie Shavers as a band member off and on from 1945 until Dorsey's death in 1956; Paul Gonsalves played with the band briefly in 1953.
Charlie Barnet used Negro sidemen consistently from 1941, when he hired Dizzy Gillespie for a few weeks; during the 1940s he was responsible even more often than Goodman for the presentation of an integrated ensemble.
Les Brown and Bob Crosby have always maintained all-white personnels. Woody Herman at one juncture showed signs o£ mixing his band indiscriminately (in 1949-50 he had Gene Ammons, Ernie Royal, Shadow Wilson, Milt Jackson, Oscar Petti-ford ) but abandoned the practice as a result of some discouraging experiences.
Count Basie has used white sidemen from time to time: Georgie Auld, Serge Chaloff and trumpeter Al Porcino were with him for short periods in 1950, Buddy De Franco was a member of the Basie Septet for a full year in 1950-1 and Johnny Mandel played trombone in the big band for five months in 1953.
Duke Ellington hired the non-Negro Juan Tizol, a Puerto Rican, in 1929, but by the queer standards of American racism his was a borderline case. The first affirmative break was the use of Louis Bellson on drums, in 1951-3, followed by another white drummer, Dave Black, in 1953-5. During these periods Ellington, who had often described his contribution to jazz as representative of "Negro music" but who by now was more concerned with its value simply as music, experimented with several other white sidemen. Notable among them was Tony Scott, who quit the band after a month, despite Ellington's protests, in 1953, and whom Duke has since described wistfully as "the only musician who was ever forced out of my band by race prejudice." Scott admitted that the hostile attitude of one or two band members was not conducive to his staying. |
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