Jazz ambassadors is the name often given to jazz musicians who were sponsored by the US State Department to tour Eastern Europe, the Middle East, central and southern Asia and Africa as part of cultural diplomacy initiatives to promote American values globally.[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.[5][6] President Eisenhower was particularly concerned with how internal race relations affected America's international reputation.[6] He saw the Cold War as a battle of ideas and that a cultural exchange program could address some of these concerns.[5] Congress formalised the President's Special International Program for Participation in International Affairs, also known as the Cultural Presentations Program, in 1956. U.S. officials explained that the main purpose of the program was to "counteract Russian propaganda".[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). The program was also sponsored by the government owned broadcaster Voice of America (VOA).[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.[10] Jazz's association with African-Americans, as well as its racially mixed bands, also meant it could serve as a demonstration of racial equality and harmony.[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.[8]
Initially Louis Armstrong was to tour in November 1955 as approved by the State Department, however Eisenhower's refusal to send in federal troops to enforce newly issued integration in Little Rock Central High School and to support the nine African American high schoolers outraged Armstrong. He refused his role as the first official jazz ambassador, stating ''The way they are treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell!'.[13]
Known as the Little Rock Crisis, this event highlighted the hypocrisy of the "US values" intended to be displayed through the jazz tours, namely democracy, equality and freedom. All of which were denied to the nine students of Little Rock and more widely all African Americans as the struggle for civil rights, particularly in the Southern states of the US, went on.
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 . Influential jazz musicians more often vocalized their opinions on, and often condemning, US government action (mainly concerning civil rights), the longer they played their highlighted jazz ambassador role. Ultimately US diplomats themselves played up Armstrong's initial defiance as an example of American's superiority in freedom of speech - 'even a black man could criticize his own government and not be punished - '[13] thus playing a weak hand well.
Dizzy Gillespie headed the first State Department sponsored tour in March 1956 which lasted for ten weeks.[14] Democratic Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. had long been an advocate for including jazz in cultural tours and was crucial in setting up Gillespie's tour.[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.[14][17] An American ambassador reported back that "we could have built a new tank for the cost of this tour, but you can't get as much goodwill out of a tank as you can out of Dizzy Gillespie's band."[14] The Gillespie's tour was successful in improving America's reputation and created a template for subsequent tours by other musicians.[1][18] Gillespie drew criticism, however, for reports that while touring Brazil he had prioritised associating with local musicians over attending official events. He did not perform for the State Department again for over a decade.[19]
For the next jazz ambassador tour the State Department's frontman was Benny Goodman. In December 1957 Goodman's band began a seven week tour of East and Southeast Asia.[20] This tour reaped benefits not only for its impact on the general public but also for strengthening American ties to the rulers of the countries he visited.[21] While in Thailand, Goodman made a significant impression on King Bhumibol Adulyadej, himself a musician and jazz enthusiast, and the king playing with Goodman's band.[22] Goodman promoted the idea that racism had already been defeated in America. He later said "I was constantly asked by the press over there about the colored people here. [...] I guess they had been fed a lot of Communist propaganda".[23] Much like Gillespie's tour, Goodman's tour was a diplomatic success.[24] Following the tour, Goodman, the child of Russian immigrants, unsuccessfully tried to gain an invitation to tour in the Soviet Union.[24]
Dave Brubeck's quartet toured for the State Department in 1958. He played in East Germany and Poland before touring Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.[25] Secretary of State John Dulles himself extended the tour, and the group's engagements in the United States were cancelled. The band played in Iran and then Iraq. They had received no briefing on the political situation in Iraq but the musicians could sense the dangerous situation in the country. Only a few weeks after Brubeck had departed, Abd al-Karim Qasim overthrew the monarchy in a coup d'état.[26]
A few years later, when Louis Armstrong arrived in the Congo as part of a tour through Africa, drummers and dancers paraded him through the streets on a throne. When he played in Katanga Province, a truce was called in a long-standing civil war so the combatants on both sides could go see him play.[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. Alongside their performances, they also conduct master classes and lecture-recitals for local musicians. The State Department likewise sponsors hip-hop artists, particularly in the Middle East.[27]
The jazz ambassador tours exposed the American musicians to new musical styles and traditions from the countries they visited. Duke Ellington's albums Far East Suite, Latin American Suite and Afro-Eurasian Eclipse were inspired by his tours as a jazz ambassador.[28][17] Dizzy Gillespie's composition "Rio Pakistan" was similarly inspired by his 1956 tour.[29] Several albums recorded during Gillespie's tours were released including Dizzy in Greece and World Statesman.[17] Dave Brubeck's 1958 Jazz Impressions of Eurasia spawned from the music he had heard while touring as a jazz ambassador.[30] The syncopated rhythms Brubeck heard from Turkish street musicians inspired his standard Blue Rondo à la Turk.[31]
Dave Brubeck, who participated in the project, was critical of the experience. He and his wife Iola Brubeck later wrote a musical, The Real Ambassadors, based on his experiences.[32]
Although influenced by new music exposed to them in the toured countries, jazz ambassadors in turn were able to influence the people of non-aligned countries. By researching and incorporating the local music of each country they visited, it allowed the state-funded jazz musicians to also present an America that was capable of celebrating and appreciating foreign local traditions.[13]