Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War

By Penny M. Von Eschen and Von Eschen

Book Overview

At the height of the ideological antagonism of the Cold War, the U.S. State Department unleashed an unexpected tool in its battle against Communism: jazz. From 1956 through the late 1970s, America dispatched its finest jazz musicians to the far corners of the earth, from Iraq to India, from the Congo to the Soviet Union, in order to win the hearts and minds of the Third World and to counter perceptions of American racism. Penny Von Eschen escorts us across the globe, backstage and onstage, as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and other jazz luminaries spread their music and their ideas further than the State Department anticipated. Both in concert and after hours, through political statements and romantic liaisons, these musicians broke through the government's official narrative and gave their audiences an unprecedented vision of the black American experience. In the process, new collaborations developed between Americans and the formerly colonized peoples of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East--collaborations that fostered greater racial pride and solidarity. Though intended as a color-blind promotion of democracy, this unique Cold War strategy unintentionally demonstrated the essential role of African Americans in U.S. national culture. Through the tales of these tours, Von Eschen captures the fascinating interplay between the efforts of the State Department and the progressive agendas of the artists themselves, as all struggled to redefine a more inclusive and integrated American nation on the world stage.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674022602
• ISBN13: 9780674022607
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Jazz on the fluid front of the Cold War

This book appeals to me on two levels. As a jazz musician, I found it to be the most comprehensive, thoughtful presentation I've ever seen on an important episode in jazz history: the U.S. government-sponsored jazz ambassador tours of the mid-1950s through the late 1970s. As a political scientist who grew up during the Cold War, I appreciate the linkages that the author makes between her subjects and the geopolitics and domestic struggles of the day. Jazz buffs will delight in the well-documented accounts of the overseas experiences of Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, and Benny Goodman. Many other jazz ambassadors and their noteworthy band members are covered in less detail, or simply mentioned briefly (for example, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Charles Mingus, Sonny Stitt, Phil Woods). Some readers may wish that their favorite artist had been given more coverage, but in any case you'll be surprised at how many performers in the jazz community of that era were involved in this multi-decade enterprise. As the bands endured grueling travel schedules to appear in seemingly unlikely locations for jazz concerts (such as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union, to name just a few), they were often embraced and sometimes challenged, not just by host country officials, but also by State Department employees at U.S. embassies. A fascinating sample of these interactions is chronicled here, along with the almost universal enthusiasm for the performers by audiences and local musicians at all of their destinations. Jazz aficionados and readers too young to remember any part of the 1950s-70s may have less interest in the book's discussion of the interplay between the jazz tours, the U.S. civil rights movement, and the Cold War policies of containment of the Soviet Union and courtship of non-aligned nations. Nonetheless, there were important dynamics at work that should attract more than just academic interest. The book does an excellent job of showing that the jazz tours presented a face of America to the world that was not exactly what the State Department was expecting, but perhaps was better because it was more authentic.