[Dixielandjazz] Mixed Race Recording/Jamming

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

It did not stop there and then either folks:

I had many problems trailblazing with mixed members in my bands in the 
60,s and early 70,s
they were forbidden in Holiday Inns, and even the Fairmont in S.F.  
Until I finally booked Terrell Prude there.

It was not about the quality of the players but the fear that they 
would attract what management
 considered the undesirable clientele to see and hear them.

Was a Hell of a Fight  trust me, and the Musicians Union was not a 
damned bit of help either, and we at that time had a Black Sax man as 
the Secretary too, but  he was so scared of losing his day gig in the 
office he would not stand up for any Black player who complained.

He was a nice man too, but spineless, and the ONLY Black Player that I 
ever refused to HIRE, which was too bad because he was an excellent 
player, just a token Black wimp on the Union Payroll to keep the rest 
of them shut up about the way things really were.

Cheers, and Jeers, and we did OVERCOME  heck The Fairmont even hired 
James Brown, and The Platters,  whoopeee!!

James did however get even with them, he went downstairs to Sydney 
Mobel's Exquisite Jewelry Store while he was appearing and saw photos 
of the Diamond rings Sydney had made for Frank Sinatra, and a couple of 
other Stars and told Sydney that he wanted him to make him a ring 
bigger and better than any of theirs, so Sydney made him one for 
$50,000.00 and James charged it to his hotel room, left the Hotel and 
went home with a week left on his contract and told the managers he was 
sick, catch me next time:))

Now of course you all want to know if The Fairmont paid Sydney, of 
course they did he rented his store space from them :))

James was probably still laughing about that caper as he Boarded the 
Night Train Christmas morning and rode outta here for the last time :))

Tom Wiggins


-----Original Message-----
From: slholzer at iquest.net
To: dhs2 at peoplepc.com
Cc: dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 3:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Mixed Race Recording/Jamming

   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
>_______________________________________________
>Dixielandjazz mailing list
>Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
>


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