"In 1962, approached by city fathers about a jazz festival in the pre-Civil Rights Act South, Wein observed dryly, "You know, Duke Ellington is accustomed to being treated as royalty wherever he goes. He stays in the finest hotels. But I understand that your hotels are segregated and will not accept blacks as guests." He noted that many jazz bands were integrated. The city fathers agreed the time was not yet ripe for a New Orleans jazz festival. In 1968 they came back to him, discovered his wife was black, and instead hired Wein's former colleague Willis Conover."
Gene Santoro with a taut review of the autobiography of legendary jazz promoter George Wein.