During the Cold War, jazz musicians represented more than a musical style when they played outside of the United States. Through photographs, performance footage, and interviews with authors and historians, Hugo Berkeley's PBS-aired documentary examines a State Department initiative in which jazz musicians doubled as diplomats. Combined with its history of segregation, America in the days following the murder of 15-year-old Emmett Till attracted international criticism. New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., husband of pianist Hazel Scott, felt that sending mixed-race bands out into the world would help present a more positive image. Powell recommended Dizzy Gillespie as the first jazz musician to continue the work Powell began at 1955's Afro-Asian Conference. Although Gillespie's politics leaned to the left, his popularity assuaged any governmental concerns. Drummer Charlie Persip and arranger Quincy Jones remember their seven-country tour through the Middle East with fondness, with the exception of a few close calls with snake charmers in Pakistan and student protests in Greece. Louis Armstrong, the next ambassador, visited the Gold Coast (the future Ghana) where he performed in front of 1,000 people. Although he lost out on a trip to the U.S.S.R. over his criticism of President Eisenhower's handling of school desegregation in Little Rock, he later visited 14 African nations. Other jazz ambassadors included Dave Brubeck, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington. After the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, the program largely came to an end. The Jazz Ambassadors takes an interesting look at a little-known, decades-old program that arose to alleviate problems with the U.S. image—ones that are still ongoing. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)
The Jazz Ambassadors
(2018) 90 min. DVD: $24.99 ($54.99 w/PPR). PBS Video. ISBN: 978-1-5317-0500-8. Volume 33, Issue 6
The Jazz Ambassadors
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