Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Nathan Smith
Guest: Dr. Kelsey Klotz
Episode: Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness
Date: January 5, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Nathan Smith interviews Dr. Kelsey Klotz, Lecturer of Music and Assistant Dean for Inclusive Excellence at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, about her new book, Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness (Oxford University Press, 2023). The discussion explores how the celebrated jazz pianist Dave Brubeck navigated and performed whiteness, privilege, and respectability in mid-20th-century America—within jazz culture and beyond. Klotz’s book leverages Brubeck as a lens to probe whiteness studies, critical race theory, and the social dynamics of jazz history.

Key Topics and Themes

1. Genesis of the Project & Research Context

(03:57–07:59)

• Project Beginnings:
  • Klotz first engaged with Brubeck’s career during a graduate seminar and was struck by the lack of critical studies on him.
  • “I felt like he was telling a really interesting story that hadn’t really been told at that point.” (Klotz, 04:40)
• Jazz Studies Needs:
  • By 2017-2018, jazz scholarship was robust on race but lacked critical work specifically analyzing whiteness.
  • Increased attention to whiteness arose in the wake of Black Lives Matter and critical events such as Michael Brown’s killing.

2. Whiteness as Performed & The “Good White Person”

(08:53–13:57)

• Defining Performances of Whiteness:
  • Klotz theorizes whiteness as a performance: “spoken and unspoken rules, behaviors, speech acts that white people define, and redefine... over centuries.” (Klotz, 09:06)
  • Brubeck is often framed as a “good white person”—performing anti-racist acts while still participating in white supremacist structures.
• Critical Nuance:
  • Klotz maintains an empathetic but unblinking perspective:
    • “You can love Brubeck… and acknowledge good acts… but that doesn’t excuse someone from these larger structural issues.” (Smith, 11:37)
    • “Performances are not necessarily disingenuous; they may be incredibly thoughtful, but viewed collectively, they become recognizable habits.” (Klotz, 12:36)

3. Critical Reception: Swing, Intellectualism, and Racial Coding

(13:57–25:26)

• Chapter One Focus:
  • The racialization of jazz terms by critics (e.g., “swing” vs. “counterpoint”).
    • Critics described white musicians in cool jazz (like Brubeck) using terms from European classical music (“fugue”, “counterpoint”, “intellectual”), while Black musicians were celebrated for “swing” and “rhythmic vitality.”
• Changing Perceptions of Cool Jazz:
  • Originally, artists like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis were central to cool jazz before critics shifted focus toward white performers.
  • “By the early 50s... we really see this narrative solidify around cool jazz and white performers.” (Klotz, 16:54)
    • Modern Jazz Quartet, with Black members, used counterpoint but were still coded as “natural” and “swinging” rather than “intellectual.”
• Can Brubeck Swing?
  • The debate over whether Brubeck could “swing” became a site for racial policing:
    • “If you say that they don’t swing, that is… a way to signal that this person doesn’t belong.” (Smith, 23:36)
    • Brubeck’s own variable definition: “I would say that I swing all of the times, but sometimes it’s more than others.” (Klotz, 22:50)

4. Respectability, Audience, and Mainstream Acceptance

(25:26–31:49)

• Chapter Two: Respectability as Whiteness
  • Brubeck’s image appealed to mainstream, respectable audiences, including “housewives,” due to his “family man” persona and perceived morality:
    • “His respectability becomes part of their own performance of whiteness in many ways.” (Klotz, 27:31)
  • Marketing efforts, such as lipstick ads and fashion magazine features, notably expanded jazz’s audience and reframed its social meanings.
    • “He’s the first jazz musician to perform at the Music Educators National [Conference]…” (Klotz, 27:13)
• Visual & Media Representation:
  • Album covers featuring modern art signified intellectual refinement and aligned Brubeck visually and socially with whiteness.

5. Time Magazine and the Politics of Representation

(31:49–37:06)

• The Time Magazine Covers (Chapter Three)
  • Brubeck was the only one among iconic jazz musicians (Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk) to be depicted making eye contact on his Time cover.
    • “The only figure that is looking directly out of the image is Dave Brubeck... the black gaze was much more controlled.” (Klotz, 32:10)
  • The Time profile showed Brubeck as an individual with agency and atypical habits, whereas profiles of Black musicians leaned heavily on stereotyping and lack of subjectivity.

6. Civil Rights, Integration, and the Quartet’s Southern Tours

(38:02–47:50)

• Chapter Four: Racial Integration and its Costs
  • In the 1960s, Brubeck refused to replace Eugene Wright, his Black bassist, to comply with Southern Jim Crow segregation, resulting in canceled tours.
    • “We want to be explicit. We are an integrated group, and we are not going to replace Eugene Wright.” (Klotz, 41:23)
  • Financial repercussions were significant (Brubeck lost more than half the expected earnings).
• Personal vs. Political Stakes:
  • Eugene Wright—sometimes ambivalent about his position—took on disproportionate risk. Brubeck received accolades for his stance, while Black musicians were often criticized for not “doing enough.”
    • “White musicians did not have that expectation whatsoever.” (Klotz, 47:17)

7. The Gates of Justice: Race, Religion, and Musical Protest

(48:32–58:12)

• Chapter Five: Cross-Community Alliances and Tensions
  • Brubeck’s cantata “The Gates of Justice” (1969), commissioned by a synagogue, was intended to bridge Black and Jewish communities at a time when that alliance was fracturing.
    • “The cantata has a very kind of Jewish perspective because it’s commissioned by Jewish rabbis... I try to bring in... perspective from Black civil rights leaders... about their relationship.” (Klotz, 50:34)
  • The Temple’s relocation reflected both white flight and racial anxieties.
• Musical Essentialism:
  • The cantata musically essentialized voice types (Jewish cantor, “Black baritone”), exposing racial assumptions even within a project of alliance.

8. Conclusion: Brubeck, Indigeneity Claims, and Later Life

(60:49–64:51)

• Brubeck as Prism/Frame
  • Across the book, Brubeck functions as a “prism”—not simply as agent, but as figure refracting/reflecting the performances of whiteness by critics, audiences, and mass media.
    • “Brubeck is really just the frame… to see other performances. Sometimes we focus on what he’s doing… but often… how communities are using him in their own performances.” (Klotz, 58:19)
• Claims to Indigeneity and 1990s Jazz Culture
  • In the 1990s, Brubeck began to gently claim Native ancestry, joining a wave of white musicians seeking alternative routes to authenticity amid Black-led definitions of jazz.
    • “Brubeck’s claiming of indigeneity becomes part of this white backlash to what’s happening with jazz in the 1980s and 1990s…” (Klotz, 62:40)
  • He shifts to a colorblind narrative, which Klotz links to broader anxieties among white jazz musicians in this era.

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “We consider [Brubeck] to be a good white person... because he performs certain acts of goodness... but he’s also... still embedded in a white supremacist structure…”
  Kelsey Klotz, 09:59
• “His respectability becomes part of their own performance of whiteness in many ways.”
  Kelsey Klotz, 27:31
• “The only figure looking directly out of the image is Dave Brubeck... the black gaze was much more controlled.”
  Kelsey Klotz, 32:10
• “[Brubeck] is of a time... It’s not my goal to say, ‘How dare you not do X, Y, Z?’... but we can learn from what he is doing.”
  Kelsey Klotz, 12:30
• “I would say that I swing all of the times, but sometimes it’s more than others.”
  Kelsey Klotz, 22:50
• “So this chapter takes that moment as the starting point... [Brubeck] is not going to replace Eugene Wright.”
  Kelsey Klotz, 41:23
• “Brubeck is really just the frame... a way to see other performances.”
  Kelsey Klotz, 58:19

Notable Moments & Discussion Highlights

• Brubeck’s Time magazine cover and its implications for racial visibility in mainstream media. (31:49–37:06)
• The nuanced role of audiences—especially white women and families—in constructing Brubeck as respectable and thus racially palatable. (25:26–31:49)
• The detailed recounting of the 1960 Southern tour debacle and the tension between progressive stances and peril for Black band members. (38:02–47:50)
• Analysis of The Gates of Justice as a complex site for inter-racial and interfaith performance and aspiration—but also for the persistence of essentializing discourses. (48:32–58:12)

Looking Ahead: Dr. Klotz’s Future Directions

• Current Work:
  • Administrative role as Assistant Dean for Inclusive Excellence; teaching responsibilities.
• Next Research Interests:
  • Inspired by themes around gender and genre in jazz, particularly focusing on jazz’s construction of authenticity with regard to women musicians and audiences (e.g., Marian McPartland).
  • Interest in contributing resources for teaching jazz history beyond the “great man” and racial paradigms to include greater gender analysis. (65:08–67:23)

Summary Takeaway

Through an incisive blend of archival research and contemporary theory, Klotz’s Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness argues that Brubeck—far from being simply a progressive “good white” ally—encapsulates the shifting, recursive, and often invisible performances of whiteness in jazz. Her work demonstrates the necessity of interrogating not only Blackness but also the operation and sustaining of whiteness in music history, popular culture, and social life.

End of Summary
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