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- Title
The Ambassadorial LPs of Dizzy Gillespie: World Statesman and Dizzy in Greece.
- Authors
MUELLER, DARREN
- Abstract
In 1956, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie became the first jazz musician to participate in the State Department's Cultural Presentations program, a highly public aspect of U.S. Government's Cold War propaganda efforts abroad. Seeking to capitalize on this historic moment, Gillespie's record company issued two LPs featuring his ambassadorial ensemble: World Statesman (1956) and Dizzy in Greece (1957). To date, scholarship about the tours highlights how Gillespie skillfully navigated the shifting political landscape both on and off the bandstand. The role that commercial record making played in the renegotiation of African Americans’ social position during this era, however, remains undertheorized. This article reveals how, despite the albums’ claims of representation from abroad, the LPs contain only a small portion of Gillespie's tour repertoire. I argue that these LPs were never meant to document the tours with veracity; rather, they were products of a political and technological moment when Gillespie's record label could leverage musical diplomacy to circulate an elevated vision for jazz within the country's cultural hierarchy.
- Subjects
UNITED States; GILLESPIE, Dizzy, 1917-1993; JAZZ musicians; TRUMPET players; WORLD Statesman (Music); DIZZY in Greece (Music); PROPAGANDA; FOREIGN relations of the United States
- Publication
Journal of the Society for American Music, 2016, Vol 10, Issue 3, p239
- ISSN
1752-1963
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S1752196316000201