Jazz ambassadors

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Jazz Ambassadors was a series of concerts initiated by the US State Department during the Cold War and carried out from 1956 to 1978. Musicians such as Louis Armstrong , Dizzy Gillespie , Duke Ellington , Woody Herman , Clark Terry , Thelonious Monk , Miles Davis , Benny Goodman and many others participated.

history

During the Cold War, the Afro-American Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. had the idea of ​​polishing up the tarnished image of the United States with an international tour program of well-known jazz musicians and bands, instead of ballet and classical music. This finally took place under the motto “Real Americana” and was intended to represent jazz as an artistic contrast to the existing political system; Willis Conover of Voice of America , the jazz program was also broadcast in 1955, said, "people loved jazz because they love freedom."

Adam Clayton Powell arranged for his friend the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie to do the first “Good Will” tour in this spirit; he started in March 1956 with his 18-piece Dizzy Gillespie Big Band and toured the Middle East, South Asia, Egypt and South America. The Gillespie band had their last appearance in Athens , where demonstrators had recently thrown stones at the embassy building in protest against the US government's support for the Greek military dictatorship. Many of these students would have given Gillespie a warm welcome. However, not all musicians allow themselves to be instrumentalized in this way; Louis Armstrong said in 1957 a trip to Moscow off after US President Dwight D. Eisenhower had refused federal troops to Little Rock ( Arkansas to send) to the rights of the African American population to enforce. The federal administration and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles feared a diplomatic disaster; two weeks later Eisenhower sent the federal troops. Armstrong praised the change of heart and traveled to South America with the Jazz Ambassadors . In 1961 Armstrong traveled to Africa again; In 1962 Benny Goodman did so .

The Jazz Ambassadors program created diverse international contacts for the musicians involved, which had a major influence on the development of American jazz. The pianist Randy Weston completed a tour through Africa. During a visit to Gabon , he got to know local musical instruments in a local museum and heard African musicians. Duke Ellington wrote the Far East Suite after his tour in 1963 and Dave Brubeck composed a song for the Polish people after his visit to the country in 1958 and played it at a concert in Poznan . While visiting Turkey, he wrote “The Golden Horn” (included on Jazz Impressions of Eurasia ), based on the Turkish words for “thank you”. On the same tour he played with Indian musicians; later many impressions led to the composition "Blue Rondo à la Turk" on the album Time Out , which was based on the Turkish Zeybek dance that he had observed on his journey.

Lincoln Center is currently running a similar program under the title Rhythm Road on behalf of the State Department , which sends ten bands (mostly jazz musicians, but also hip hop musicians) to 56 countries. In contrast to the earlier, more political Jazz Ambassadors program, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not tell artists what to do. However, many musicians deal with the culture of the countries they visit; the bassist Ari Roland studied some folk songs before his tour to Turkmenistan and played them with local musicians. Commenting on his approach, he said, “People see Americans paying tribute to local culture; many came after the concert and said they were not like all imperialists who wanted to change the world in their own image. ”In 2008, saxophonist Chris Byars played the music of Gigi Gryce , who had converted to Islam, in Saudi Arabia Name Basheer Qusim . He said: "When people hear that I will play compositions by the American jazz musician Basheer Qusim, I will get their attention". According to journalist Fred Kaplan, the aim of the current program is "to demonstrate the unique and overwhelming vitality of the United States and that the United States wants to get along in harmony with the rest of the world".

A photo exhibition entitled Jam Session - The Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World was held in 2008 at the Meridian International Center in Washington, DC .

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