You might think that segregation in the Hollywood music industry ended when the black and white Musicians' Unions amalgamated in 1953, or when Groucho Marx hired Buddy Collette for his "You Bet Your Life" band around that time, but documentarian (and multigenre tuba player) William Roper won't let you get away with it. Through the eyes and words of four musicians who've been there, Roper paints a dark picture of the whiteness we don't hear in "Sidelining the Sideman (and Woman)."
It's a familiar tale of grudging progress made -- often after eye-openers such as the nationwide uprisings of 1965 -- and progress rescinded. Through the words of cornetist Bobby Bradford, trumpeter Nolan Shaheed, violinist Susan Chatman, violist Robin Ross and percussionist Joseph Mitchell, we hear about the opportunities available to African-American musicians in Los Angeles recording dates and classical halls from the 1950s onward. Often, as reported by Ross and Shaheed, doors would be opened by govenment-funded programs, only to be closed when funds ran out or inertia took its course.
Although Roper's interviewees acknowledge that the movie & recording industries and the orchestras made efforts to reverse their whites-only policies, the players suggest that a look at current rosters will not reflect anything close to the city's population proportions, regardless of available talent. And overt racism isn't the only reason: Shaheed and Mitchell both say they eventually stopped applying for jobs because they felt like tokens, hired for "skin and grin."
Here's the knife edge of the racial revolution. The Hollywood color barrier was broken by musicians such as Buddy Collette, extraordinarily capable and extraordinarily polite. When he achieved influence, he brought to many a movie and record date friends such as fellow windman Eric Dolphy, whose personality exhibited the same qualities. Some of the best playing from both, however, leapt forth when they partnered with Charles Mingus, a mixed-race L.A. bassist-composer with chops to burn and a mouth like a fire hydrant, who never would have been hired by a studio if he were the last four-stringer on Earth.
Should the ability to blend in be the first, second or 20th hiring consideration? Hell, no. But that's one of the impediments to full representation, from both sides of the contract, and Roper has balls enough to make it plain. He's here for the facts, not easy solutions.
So we're left with a tinge of despair, despite Roper's bleak sense of humor, exemplified by the doc's hilarious "Dragnet"-style setup: "No names have been changed, because no one is innocent." (His concise, harmonically piquant musical cues are worth listening to in their own right, by the way.)
Don't be put off by the conclusion. You'll feel Roper's door isn't locked.
"Sidelining" screens at the Edendale Public Library, 2011 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake, Mon. Oct. 21, at 6pm (it runs about an hour), followed by a Q & A with William Roper; info here. (Note the postponement, originally Oct. 10.)