Dizzy in Pakistan
Satchmo in Cairo
Duke and Paul Gonsalves in IraqI had never heard about this but it combines three of my favorite things: jazz, politics, and travel. In addition to the articles, be sure to check out the NPR audio slideshow.
From NPR...
The year is 1956. We're deep in the throes of the Cold War. And as European powers are divested of colonial possessions, the Soviet Union is shrewdly dispatching cultural envoys around the world -- dancers, musicians and artists -- to win the trust and loyalty of newly emerging nations.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government is clambering in search of its own diplomatic edge. A voice of reason then emerges from the panic: Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a Harlem congressman, steps up and says, "Let's send Dizzy." There's no better way to win hearts and minds than through the irrepressible forces of jazz, he proposes.
"Of course!" thought the State Department. Not only was jazz a uniquely American art form, but also a democratic one. The rules were loose, the music free-flowing -- and the musicians were ideal diplomats: All they wanted was to jam with "local cats." In turn, these jazz artists spread the image of an accepting, inquisitive and just plain cool America.
A very interesting detail from the New York Times...
The stars were happy to play their parts in this pageant for hearts and minds, but not as puppets. After his Middle East tour Gillespie said with pride that it had been “powerfully effective against Red propaganda.” But when the State Department tried to brief him beforehand on how to answer questions about American race relations, he said: “I’ve got 300 years of briefing. I know what they’ve done to us, and I’m not going to make any excuses.”
Armstrong canceled a 1957 trip to Moscow after President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to send federal troops to Little Rock, Ark., to enforce school-integration laws. “The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell,” he said. “It’s getting so bad, a colored man hasn’t got any country.”
Administration officials feared that this broadside, especially from someone so genial as “Ambassador Satchmo,” would trigger a diplomatic disaster. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles told Attorney General Herbert Brownell that the situation in Arkansas was “ruining our foreign policy.” Two weeks later, facing pressure from many quarters, Eisenhower sent the National Guard to Arkansas. Armstrong praised the move and agreed to go on a concert tour of South America.
For more info, click here to visit the Meridian International Center's website for its photo exhibition, Jam Session: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World.
2 comments:
Nothing to do with politics, but one of my best "travel" memories took place at the Hotel L'Etoile in Paris. We went to see Dizzy Gillespie, my daugheter, my mother, nephew and myself. Art Farmer was sitting in the audience, a few tables away. Aside from him, we were the only black folk there. At the end of the show Dizzy came over spoke with us, then took my mother's hand and led her to the nearby lobby bar for a drink. He was such a nice man. I will never forget that encounter.
Nothing to do with politics, but one of my best "travel" memories took place at the Hotel L'Etoile in Paris. We went to see Dizzy Gillespie, my daugheter, my mother, nephew and myself. Art Farmer was sitting in the audience, a few tables away. Aside from him, we were the only black folk there. At the end of the show Dizzy came over spoke with us, then took my mother's hand and led her to the nearby lobby bar for a drink. He was such a nice man. I will never forget that encounter.
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