[Dixielandjazz] Mixed Race Recording/Jamming

[Steven Holzer]

The casual (and discrete) mixing of black and white jazzmen in the 
earliest times was undoubtedly facilitated by the fact that white 
jazzmen were nearly as socially unacceptable to mainstream America as 
blacks were. Having already made the choice to face censure for pursuing 
the jazz muse and living the jazz life, white musicians were not really 
looking at a heavy additional price for "fraternizing". By contrast, the 
black musicians were never free of risk, including the possibility of 
getting lynched, if their activities came to the attention of the wrong 
people or seemed in any way forward. I think you'll find that early 
mixing took place far more frequently in the blacks' own venues than 
otherwise, and that blacks who were, for whatever reason, allowed to 
have a "presence" in white venues were invariably constrained to observe 
strict standards of behavior and segregation.

Mixed record sessions probably didn't stir up too much trouble because 
they weren't much different in principle from Vernon and Irene Castle 
hiring a black band or the Streckfus riverboats using black bands to 
attract customers. Most people listening to the records probably didn't 
know who was white and who was black, and if they did, they didn't have 
to observe any "untoward" behavior that might have occurred at the session.

The inclusion of blacks in white bands on the open stage was an entirely 
different matter. It was courageous of Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa to 
use them, and still more courageous of the black musicians to be the 
test cases. The cited example of the Red Norvo trio and Charlie Mingus 
demonstrates how important it was that persons with the celebrity status 
of Goodman and Krupa took the first steps, as persons of lesser 
commercial value probably would have been squelched immediately.  Blacks 
were still struggling for acceptance in the mainstream of the American 
entertainment marketplace decades later, when Bobby Darin had to go to 
bat for Dick Gregory as his opening act at the Copacabana and Nat King 
Cole could not keep his variety show on network tv for lack of  
color-blind sponsors.

Steve Holzer

dhs2 at peoplepc.com wrote:

>Dear Listers:
>
>My reading of jazz literature indicates that many jazz musicians were pretty laid-back and tolerant folks.  It wasn't too hard for black and white musicians to mix in a recording studio or after-hours party.  It was an entirely different story for white bandleaders trying to book major gigs with black sidemen.  Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw were definitely bucking the established trend
>
>In the early 1950s Red Norvo had a terrific trio with Tal Farlow on guitar and Charles Mingus on bass.  Their recordings are classics, but Norvo couldn'r get the group on TV and was having trouble lining up tours, so he went in a different direction and the trio broke up.
>
>Regards,
>Dave Stoddard
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