Jazz Legacy and Echoes

November 16, 2019

What would cause more than 30 people to travel from seven states (and one even from as far away as Malaysia) to Buckhannon, WV to play jazz in the middle of November? There is only one answer to that question.

From 1966-2004. David Milburn taught at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Hundreds of students were challenged and inspired by him. Many of them became musicians and educators, some found their callings in medicine, banking, law, business, and a multitude of other professions. There are even several Wesleyan Jazz Sweetheart couples!

These students considered themselves part of the Milburn family and stayed in touch with his wife and daughters throughout the years. It was this sense of family that brought these people together. That, and the fact that they had shared so many incredible experiences together.

So how did it all begin?? It was all a product of the times, and of something much bigger.

The 1950s

The world was in a mess. The Cold War was raging around the world, The Civil Rights Movement was dominating the news in America. Into that mix came Jazz Music right in the middle of it all.

Time Magazine ran a story in the December 22, 2017 issue which puts all of this into perspective. The article, by Billy Perrigo, is titled How the U.S. Used Jazz as a Cold War Secret Weapon. 

The music of jazz, which was structured around improvisation within a set of commonly agreed-upon boundaries, was a perfect metaphor for America in the eyes of the State Department. Here was a music of democracy and freedom. What the bands looked like was important too. “The racism and violence within the U.S. was getting international exposure,” says Von Eschen. “For President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, this was a great embarrassment.” By sending bands comprised of black and white musicians to play together around the world, the State Department could engineer an image of racial harmony to offset the bad press about racism at home.

• 1956 – State Department sent Dizzy Gillespie as a Jazz Ambassador
• 1957 – State Department sent Benny Goodman on a tour to the Far East
• 1958 – Dave Brubeck toured Eastern Europe, Middle East, Southern Asia as an Ambassador. He championed racial integration and equality at home and abroad

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Meanwhile, at Wesleyan

Music faculty at Wesleyan tended to focus more on more orthodox forms of serious music. Ensembles consisted basically of Orchestra, Choirs, and Chamber Ensembles. Vocal instruction was offered and piano, organ, and violin were stressed as well as other orchestral instruments. Faculty included such greats as Calvin Buell Agey, Robert Shafer, Irma Helen Hopkins, Bobby Loftis, and Owen West.

There was an emphasis on music theory, composition, orchestration, and form analysis. In other words, there were strict rules when it came to music.

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The 1960s

The Cold War was in full force.

• • Construction began on the Berlin Wall (1961)
  • Cuban Missile Crisis – world on the brink of nuclear war (1962)
  • First U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam (1965)
  • Prague Spring Uprising crushed by the Warsaw Pact (an organization of communist states in Central and Eastern Europe) (1968)

The 1960s also was a busy time in the Civil Rights Movement with protests, marches, assasinations and the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1962,  Dave Brubeck, and wife Iola, wrote a musical called “The Real Ambassadors for Louis Armstrong (a musical commentary on race relations in America). The State Department cultural diplomacy tours of the 1950s were often at odds with the Civil Rights issues at home. This musical was intended to address the difficulties of these contradictions in message.

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Meanwhile at Wesleyan

In 1966 a new faculty member was hired in the Music Department.

David Milburn, as it turns out, was about to cause a major shift in the departmental approach to music. Having had exposure to the great jazz legends, he was probaby a bit frustrated with this description of the Instrumental Ensemble Course in the 1968-69 catalog:

In 1969, he requested to form a Jazz Ensemble. Dr. Agey refused on the basis that jazz was not serious music and had no place in the department. He said that it could not meet in Loar Hall. So, David Milburn, the rebel, started the group and met off campus or in the SCOW (Student Center of Wesleyan). With no budgetary support, the band members literally sat around listening to records and writing out their own parts by hand.  Click here to read his recollection of that period of time. He recalls that:

We had to practice ‘secretly’ off campus and occasionally we were allowed to practice in the ‘Scow’ as long as the music department didnt hear about it. After the first year we were finally accepted by the music department but we had to use the name “Modern American Music Ensemble,” but at least we were acknowledged as a legitimate organization and they allowed us to practice on campus and even use Loar Hall to practice in.

The group quickly gained popularity with audiences and musicians alike. They learned improvisation and composing and to arrange compositions. They began to live by musical rules that went beyond the strict rules of days gone by.

By 1973, a mere four years later, the West Virginia Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble participated in the first of what would be 10 Friendship Ambassador Tours to Eastern Europe, playing the music of freedom and democracy to audiences living under Communist Rule. They became part of that Cold War Secret Weapon of cutural diplomacy.

• 1973 (July) Romania 
• 1974 (August 6-30) Poland 
• 1979 (May)Romania 
• 1983 (Summer) Russia and Romania 
• 1987 Hungary and Austria
• 1992 (Spring) Russia, Romania, and the Ukraine
• 1996 (May) The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania
• 1997 Romania
• 2001 Finland, Estonia, and Russia
• 2004 (May) Bulgaria, Romania, and The Czech Republic

A documentary, The Jazz Ambassadors, was made in 2018. It was directed by Hugo Berkeley and stars Leslie Odom, Jr. It is currently available free on Amazon Prime. In it we see how The Cold War, The Civil Rights Movement, and Jazz collided.

David Milburn and the WVWC Jazz Ensemble took an active role in the cultural diplomacy of the times. Truly, this was a remarkable set of circumstances and a talented group of people. This rich legacy adds to the close-knit family feeling among the WVWC Jazz “Oldtimers.”

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An Era Comes to a Close

As the final Milburn-led European trip came to a close in the summer of 2004, the band found itself performing in a theater in one of the largest cities in Bulgaria. On that particular evening, the concert stage was shared with a local jazz band. That group performed first, followed by WVWC.

At the end of the concert, Wesleyan welcomed the local Bulgarian jazz group to share the stage to perform the final song together as one “super-group.” While the vast majority of musicians from both groups were unable to communicate with each other through the language barrier, everyone was able to immediately bond through the one true universal language—music. The performance of that final song was a literal expression of everything the Wesleyan jazz group had come to represent in Eastern Europe over 30 years and 10 visits: bridging cultural divides, and bringing humanity closer together through music.

Following Dr. Milburn’s retirement in 2004, and with the different times in which we live today, the group is doing a few different things. For a couple of years, the program was led by David Wright, but in 2006, James Moore arrived at Wesleyan bringing with him his own hopes and dreams for the program. Jazz at WVWC is alive, well, and thriving.

That group has a story all of its own for another day, but suffice it to say that David Milburn would be excited to see the Legacy being carried forward.

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Family Reunion!! (At least some of the family. There are hundreds more who were there in spirit as well)

A highlight of the evening was when the band played Hey Jude, and the audience which filled the Culpepper Auditorium joined in singing Hey Slide (Doc’s other nickname).

Special thanks to Jim Watson for getting the whole thing going and giving everyone the chance to create a wonderful tribute to our mentor and friend. And to Neil Randolph who stepped in to pull all of the musicians together and get them ready to swing.