Arts council puts jazz on display
Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson plays piano at the Newport-Belgrade Jazz Festival in the former Yugoslavia in 1973, wearing a checkered suit and a smile on his face.
Duke Ellington blows kisses from a white convertible to an enamored crowd at the Tamil Union Oval before a performance in 1972 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Lucille Armstrong films her husband Louis “Satchmo" Armstrong sitting on a camel in Giza, Egypt, in 1961. He's playing the trumpet.
These photographs and many more are on display at the Kinston Community Council for the Arts through Dec. 6, in an exhibition aptly named “Jam Session: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World."
The photographs were taken by State Department photographers documenting a bit of cultural diplomacy during the height of the Cold War, according to Executive Director Sandy Landis. Jazz musicians from the United States - and Canada - brought an exclusively American-made musical form to countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the former U.S.S.R.
“I think this show documents a part of history many of us don't remember or weren't here to experience," she said.
Photographs adorn the walls of the center as jazz music from the artists in the photographs plays from the speakers, immersing those inside in a different world. Landis said because of the extent of the exhibit, there's much to see and experience.
Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson plays piano at the Newport-Belgrade Jazz Festival in the former Yugoslavia in 1973, wearing a checkered suit and a smile on his face.
Duke Ellington blows kisses from a white convertible to an enamored crowd at the Tamil Union Oval before a performance in 1972 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Lucille Armstrong films her husband Louis “Satchmo" Armstrong sitting on a camel in Giza, Egypt, in 1961. He's playing the trumpet.
These photographs and many more are on display at the Kinston Community Council for the Arts through Dec. 6, in an exhibition aptly named “Jam Session: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World."
The photographs were taken by State Department photographers documenting a bit of cultural diplomacy during the height of the Cold War, according to Executive Director Sandy Landis. Jazz musicians from the United States - and Canada - brought an exclusively American-made musical form to countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the former U.S.S.R.
“I think this show documents a part of history many of us don't remember or weren't here to experience," she said.
Photographs adorn the walls of the center as jazz music from the artists in the photographs plays from the speakers, immersing those inside in a different world. Landis said because of the extent of the exhibit, there's much to see and experience.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
