Jazz ambassadors
[1][2][3] Starting in 1956, the State Department began hiring leading American jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington to be "ambassadors" for the United States overseas, particularly to improve the public image of the US in the light of criticism from the Soviet Union around racial inequality and racial tension.
[4] In the early 1950s, against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, decolonialisation and the Cold War, U.S. policy makers realised a new approach to American cultural diplomacy was needed.
[7] The program was supervised by the State Department, who had final approval over artist selection,[8] and the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA).
[9] While the program included a wide variety of cultural and artistic forms, jazz was quickly embraced by the State Department due to being an indigenous American artform.
[11][12] The State Department made sure that selection panels only chose suitable artists, taking into account their musicianship, "Americanness" and integrity as well as the personal character and racial make-up of their bands.
Jazz diplomacy played a more subtle and significant role in the Cold War than first envisioned, as not only Armstrong saw the irony in representing a country that preached democracy abroad while it was denied.
[15][16] An 18-piece interracial band led by Gillespie, with Quincy Jones as music director, performed across Europe, Asia and South America including Iran, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Greece and Argentina.
[26] Duke Ellington was one the most influential jazz ambassadors in promoting Black music as both modern art and an integral part in showcasing American ideals overseas.
The three-month long tour of the middle east included countries such as Syria, Jordan, Afghanistan, India, Ceylon, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey.
The U.S. State Department increased Duke Ellington's appearances worldwide, leading to a significant amount of positive international publicity.
Ellington's tours around the world resonated with many who found freedom in Duke's music and identified with the shared struggle for liberation during the period of the Cold War.
[14] In the decades since the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the US State Department has sponsored Jazz Ambassadors in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Jazz, previously condemned by The Third Reich as a degraded and un-German, sparked excitement among many Germans after the fall of Nazi Germany, as it symbolized modernity and freedom.
[33] Critiques of jazz also echoed prewar rhetoric, attacking both the music and the young male dancers in Hot Clubs, which they deemed unruly and morally suspect.
[34] These concerns extended to young women, as critics feared the perceived sexual dangers jazz potentially posed to their innocence or virtue.
[35] Reactions to jazz were deeply associated with broader anxieties about gender, morality, and the preservation of cultural identity in a divided Germany.
[41] Figures like Leonid Osipovich Utyosov championed jazz, arguing through Marxist ideology that it reflected the struggles of poor African Americans rather than capitalist values.
[42] Despite increased popularity, Soviet artists feared association with American jazz musicians during ambassador tours, as official approval remained inconsistent.
[49] The syncopated rhythms Brubeck heard from Turkish street musicians inspired his standard Blue Rondo à la Turk.
