A Tribute to Eugene Wright
We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of bassist Eugene Wright yesterday at the age of 97 (May 29, 1923 - December 30,1920). Gene was the last surviving member of the “Classic” Dave Brubeck Quartet, and remained a good friend and honorary Uncle to the Brubeck family to the end.
Known by the jazz community as “The Senator”, Gene was born in Chicago, IL on May 29, 1923. He studied cornet in school and taught himself how to play upright bass. In his early career, Gene led his own band, the Dukes of Swing, and played with the Lonnie Simmons group.
Gene played bass in The Dave Brubeck Quartet for many years, joining the group for their U.S. Department of State tour of Europe and Asia in 1958 and becoming a permanent member the following year. He left the Quartet in 1968 when Dave disbanded the group to pursue his career as a composer, but Gene performed with Dave off and on for many years afterwards, including the famous 1988 Joint State Dinner organized by President Reagan and Secretary Gorbachev in Moscow.
Gene performed with the world’s best jazz musicians, including Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, and Carmen McRae. In the 1970s, he recorded film soundtracks and worked in television studios. He served as head of the Jazz Department at the University of Cincinnati and was head of the advisory board in the jazz division of the International Society of Bassists.
We remember the challenges Gene and the Quartet had to undergo in order to play at segregated universities on their US tours in the early 1960s.
Dave recalled:
“I wasn't allowed to play in some universities in the United States and out of twenty-five concerts, twenty-three were cancelled unless I would substitute my black bass player for my old white bass player, which I wouldn't do.
“They wouldn't let us go on with Gene [Wright] and I wouldn't go on without him. So there was a stalemate and [we were] in a gymnasium, a big basketball arena on a big campus. And the kids were starting to riot upstairs. So the President of the school had things pushing him from every side: The kids stamping on the floor upstairs, me refusing to go on unless I could go on with my black bass player.
“So we just stalled and the bus driver came and said, ‘Dave, hold out. Don't go on. The president is talking to the governor and I think things are going your way.’ And the Governor says, ‘You'd better let them go on.’
“So we held on and the president of the college came in and he said, ‘Now you can go on with the understanding that you'll keep Eugene Wright in the background where he can't be seen too well.’ And I told Eugene, ‘Your microphone is off and I want you to use my announcement microphone so you gotta come in front of the band to play your solo.’
“Well the audience went crazy. We integrated the school that night. The kids wanted it; the President wanted it; the teachers wanted it. The President of the college knew he might lose his funding from the state.
“So here's the reason you fight is for the truth to come out and people to look at it. Nobody was against the Quartet’s black bass player. They cheered him like he was the greatest thing that ever happened for the students. Everybody was happy.
“My point is those students had hired me in twenty-five universities. And twenty-three had to cancel because of what they thought they would lose from the state government. But they wouldn't lose it. We went back and played all of those schools in a few years. And we've had a lot of terrible things happen to us while we're fighting to have equality — police escorts from the airport to the university, or where I wouldn't go on [stage] until the black audience could come in or [until they] didn't have to sit in the balcony. I wouldn't play until they were in the front row. You gradually stop all these ridiculous old rules that nobody really believes in.”