My First Time in Variety: Simon and Garfunkel’s Late Manager Mort Lewis On His Brush With Civil Rights History
variety.comSteven Gaydos Executive VP of ContentMort Lewis was a veteran music manager whose client list included Simon and Garfunkel, Dave Brubeck and the the popular folk outfit the Brothers Four.
At the time of this interview, in late 2015, Lewis was representing Art Garfunkel, capping off a career that had begun in the 1940s.
Variety first noted Lewis in 1959 during Brubeck’s controversial tour of Southern colleges.Variety credits you with standing up to segregationists in 1959 who would only book Dave Brubeck’s jazz combo if they dropped their black bass player, jazz legend Eugene Wright.We had booked 10 dates in the South at $1,000 per night (for 10 nights), $10,000 was a lot of money in 1959.
But at that time, state laws prohibited mixed race groups on stage. I told Dave, if you pay Eugene for the two weeks, we can get Norman Bates, who is white, on bass.
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