Brubeck was a great musician and a great human being. In a culture where virtually all performing popular musicians owe a huge debt to black performers, Brubeck was one of the few to live up to a high code of ethics.

He would refuse to play a show if his black fellow performers weren’t allowed to play too, or if he felt they were being treated poorly. He’d refuse to go on television if they wouldn’t show black performers.

He was sad when he made the cover of Time, because Duke Ellington hadn’t, and to Brubeck, it was obvious that Ellington was the greater musician.

Few men displayed such integrity during that time period. He really was exceptional.