[Dixielandjazz] Sing-Song diplomacy

[Norman Vickers]

To:  DJML and Musicians List

From: Norman Vickers-Jazz Society of Pensacola

 

Here's an item from 2/24/08  Washington post outlining some  ( not all) of
the US State Department sponsored musical tours-jazz and others.
Previously posted on the Musicians List was a wonderful description by
bassist Bill Crow about the difficulties with Goodman's tour of the USSR in
the '60s.  Goodman's behavior was usual-atrocious and gauche.  Article told
about PR/advertising man Hal Davis trying to mediate between Goodman and his
players.  Some of the players left the tour, to their significant financial
disadvantage, because of the conflicts.  Article was posted on a website.  I
may or may not be able to retrieve it.  However, some member of either list
may supply it for us, again.  It was long but worth the time and effort.

 

Here's the article from Wash. Post:

 


Sing-Song Diplomacy


 

 

By Emily Langer

Sunday, February 24, 2008; Page B02 

Surely George
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/George+Gershwin?tid=informl
ine>  Gershwin never dreamed that "An American in Paris" would be performed
by Americans in Pyongyang
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Pyongyang?tid=informline> .
Nevertheless, the New
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/New+York+Philharmonic?tid=i
nformline>  York Philharmonic is off to North
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/North+Korea?tid=informline>
Korea this week to play some Gershwin, Dvorak's "New World" S ymphony and
(perhaps fittingly) a bit of Wagner for a country that President
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/George+W.+Bush?tid=informli
ne>  Bush called part of the "axis of evil." Here's a look at musical
diplomacy over the past half-century. 

1956: The State
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Department+of+State?ti
d=informline>  Department sends trumpeter Dizzy
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Dizzy+Gillespie?tid=informl
ine>  Gillespie -- master of a uniquely American art form -- on a spin
through the Middle
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Middle+East?tid=informline>
East and the Balkans
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/The+Balkans?tid=informline>
. He comes home to a country where he can't sit at a lunch counter with
whites. 

1956 : Greeted by Russia
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Russia?tid=informline> 's
finest musicians, the Boston Symphony Orchestra becomes the first major
American ensemble to play in the Soviet
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.S.R.?tid=informline>
Union. The harmony fades quickly; less than two months later, Soviet tanks
crush the Hungarian uprising. 

1957: Jazz clarinetist Benny
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Benny+Goodman?tid=informlin
e>  Goodman tours Asia
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Asia?tid=informline> . He's
introduced in Japan
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Japan?tid=informline>  as
"the great Benjamin Goodman," but he does better in Burma
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Myanmar?tid=informline> :
"Your music makes my toes tickle!" former prime minister U Nu tells him. 

1958: At age 23, Texan pianist Van Cliburn stuns the classical music world
-- and boosts Americans' Cold War morale -- by winning the first
International Tchaikovsky
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Pyotr+Ilyich+Tchaikovsky?ti
d=informline>  Competition in Moscow
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Moscow?tid=informline> .
The judges, who could be shipped to Siberia
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Siberia?tid=informline>
for the wrong decision, unanimously award him first prize -- but only after
Premier Nikita
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Nikita+Khrushchev?tid=infor
mline>  Khrushchev gives his approval. 

1958: The New York Philharmonic tours Latin
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Latin+America?tid=informlin
e>  America. A Lima
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Lima?tid=informline>
audience gives "The Star-Spangled Banner" a standing ovation -- days after
protesters threw stones at Vice President Richard Nixon during his own
"goodwill" visit to Peru
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Peru?tid=informline> . 

1962: Benny Goodman tours the Soviet Union. "I am not a jazz fan,"
Khrushchev tells him. "I like real music. I don't understand jazz. I don't
mean just yours. I don't even understand our own." 

1973 : A year after President
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Richard+Nixon?tid=informlin
e>  Nixon's visit to China
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/China?tid=informline> , the
Philadelphia
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/The+Philadelphia+Orchestra?
tid=informline>  Orchestra becomes the first American ensemble to play there
since the communist revolution. The musicians are the first U.S. citizens
most Chinese have seen in 25 years. They perform the Yellow River Concerto,
a piece composed in the finest communist tradition -- by committee. 

1990: Pink
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Pink+Floyd?tid=informline>
Floyd's Roger Waters stages the band's classic rock opera "The Wall" in a
free Berlin
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Berlin?tid=informline> .
Three years earlier, Waters had said he would do a live performance only
once the Berlin
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Berlin+Wall?tid=informline>
Wall came down -- an event he didn't expect to happen for another decade.
The show includes 600 performers and crew and a wall made of 2,500 Styrofoam
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Styrofoam?tid=informline>
bricks. 

2007: The State Department sends the Grammy-winning funk band Ozomatli to
the Middle East. They're not obvious ambassadors for the Bush
administration: The band has played at rallies opposing the Iraq
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Iraq?tid=informline>  war. 

                                                            --End--