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Jazz, Public Diplomacy, and Dizzy Gillespie
With Quincy Jones, and the USC Thornton Jazz Band
Thursday, Oct 12, 2006
7:30PM
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's videorecorded remarks set the tone for an evening commemorating the 50th anniversary of a critical event in U.S. public diplomacy history: Dizzy Gillespie's 1956 State Department-funded world musical tour. The tour was considered a turning point in U.S. cultural outreach to the world.
Click here to watch Secretary Rice's opening remarks (3min 43sec). Or read the transcript (PDF).
The event, involving several schools at USC including the Center on Public Diplomacy, began with a one hour concert of be-bop classics that were performed regularly by Dizzy Gillespie's touring band. Joining the USC Thornton Jazz Band, conducted by Shelly Berg, were Jon Faddis on trumpet, and James Moody on saxophone -- both of whom were once integral members of Gillespie's band.
Following the performance, Annenberg Dean Geoffrey Cowan moderated an on-stage discussion which featured the legendary Quincy Jones, who was both the trumpet player and music director for the Dizzy Gillespie band on the 1956 State Department-sponsored tour.
On stage aside Jones sat a panel of scholars and musicians including:
Lalo Schifrin -- Argentinian piano player who joined the Gillespie band when they visited Buenos Aires in 1956 and never looked back.
Dave Usher -- he was the acting Public Information Officer on the '56 tour and recorded the South American leg of the '56 tour.
Adam Clayton Powell III -- director of the Integrated Media Systems Center at USC. Powell's father, a Congressman, was instrumental in arranging and executing the '56 tour.
Nicholas J. Cull -- historian, professor, and chair of USC's Master's in Public Diplomacy program.
NEWS COVERAGE OF THIS EVENT
October 16, 2006: "Dizzy Gillespie's Cold War Jazz Diplomacy" -- by Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR's "Day to Day"
October 16, 2006: "USC Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Historic Jazz Tour" (audio) -- by Adolfo Guzman Lopez, KPCC, 89.3FM
October 16, 2006: "Jazz, Public Diplomacy, and Dizzy Gillespie -- With Quincy Jones" -- by Andy Sternberg, PD Newswire.
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