jazzbeau5078 months ago

Who is the pianist on the date?

JimV338 months ago (edited)

+jazzbeau507 Now I remember getting this info before:
The members of the band at that time were I believe as below:
Pete Fountain, clarinet
Charlie Lodice, drums
Oliver Felix, bass
Bob MolineIli, piano
Jimmy Weber, trumpet
Mike Genevay, trombone (with mustache)
Tom Gekler, trombone

Voice of America Jazz Hour

The Voice of America Jazz Hour was broadcast on Voice of America beginning on January 6, 1955, and through 2003; it was then folded into Voice of America Music Mix's (now VOA1) program Jazz America. It began broadcasting in 1955, hosted by Willis Conover; in its current form, it is hosted by Russ Davis. It began broadcasting in 1955 over the initial objections of Congress. The theme song of the program was Ellington's "Take the A Train". At its height, the Voice of America Jazz Hour was listened to by up to 30 million people. Although the Voice of America was prohibited from broadcasting in the United States by the Smith-Mundt Act, the shortwave signal was receivable in the US and had a sizable USA audience.

How America used jazz musicians to carry the anti-communist message when politics failed

Jazz as an instrument of global diplomacy 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 an ideal card 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.