Jazz diplomacy
Subtitle: promoting America in the Cold War era
By: Lisa E. Davenport.
Series: American made music series
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Jackson
Language: eng
Number of pages: 219
ISBN-13: 9781604732689
Subjects: Jazz -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Cold War -- Social aspects -- United States; United States -- Foreign relations -- 20th century
Description: "As an instrument of global diplomacy, jazz transformed superpower relations in the Cold War era and reshaped democracy's image worldwide. Lisa E. Davenport tells the story of America's program of jazz diplomacy practiced in the Soviet Union and other regions of the world from 1954 to 1968. Jazz music and jazz musicians seemed ideal cards to play in diminishing the credibility and appeal of Soviet communism in the Eastern bloc and beyond. Government-funded musical junkets by such jazz masters as Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, and Benny Goodman dramatically influenced perceptions of the U.S. and its capitalist brand of democracy while easing political tensions in the midst of critical Cold War crises. This book shows how, when coping with foreign questions about desegregation, the dispute over the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, jazz players and their handlers wrestled with the inequalities of race and the emergence of class conflict while promoting America in a global context. And, as jazz musicians are wont to do, many of these ambassadors riffed off script when the opportunity arose." "Jazz Diplomacy argues that this musical method of winning hearts and minds often transcended economic and strategic priorities. Even so, the goal of containing communism remained paramount, and it prevailed over America's policy of redefining relations with emerging new nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Battling the reds; title: Jazz diplomacy at home and abroad, 1954-1957; title: Jazz means freedom, 1957-1960; title: The paradox of jazz diplomacy, 1961-1966; title: Jazz behind the iron curtain, 1961-1966; title: Bedlam from the decadent West, 1967-1968; title: Conclusion.