2006年VOA标准英语-Remembering Dizzy Gillespie's Jazz Diplomacy

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
18 December 2006

Fifty years ago, Dizzy Gillespie led an international tour of jazz musicians to parts of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and South America. It was sponsored by the U.S. State Department, and marked the start of a new kind of cultural diplomacy¹. Mike O'Sullivan reports, a concert and panel discussion in Los Angeles recalled the landmark² tour, and celebrated³ Gillespie's improvisational⁴ music.

It was 1956, at the height of the Cold War, when the United States and Soviet⁵ Union were locked in an ideological⁶ battle. U.S. officials worried that their pro-democracy message was not being heard.

At the suggestion of jazz fan and Congressman⁷ Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., the State Department tried something innovative⁸, funding a tour by Gillespie and a specially⁹ formed jazz band. There were stops in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia, and later South America.

 
Dizzy Gillespie, sitting at left, with snake charmers in India
A commemorative concert at the University of Southern California recalled the landmark tour, with former Gillespie band members Jon Faddis on trumpet¹⁰ and James Moody¹¹ on saxophone joining the USC jazz orchestra. They played some of Gillespie's signature numbers, including his composition "A Night in Tunisia."

The politician behind the tour, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., represented Harlem, a largely African American section of New York City. The congressman understood the power of music and used it in his campaigns, as his son, Adam Clayton Powell III, recalled in a panel discussion.

"What he would do is, on a hot Saturday afternoon during the campaign, this is before most people had air conditioning, before most people had television sets, certainly in Harlem, and he would open all of his campaign appearances with Dizzy Gillespie," he said.

He says thousands came for Dizzy's music and stayed for the politics.

Public Diplomacy Professor Nicholas Cull¹², of USC's Annenberg School for Communication, says jazz was a metaphor¹³ for the American political system, and Powell understood that.

"Because in jazz, you are not afraid to improvise¹⁴. In jazz, you have to listen," he said. "And those are both profoundly central aspects of the American political system. And you could not listen to this music without experiencing those principles and sharing in that freedom."

International audiences already had a taste of jazz through a popular Voice of America show hosted by Willis Conover. The program had started the previous year and often featured Gillespie.

 
Dizzy Gillespie demostrates his signature trumpet style to band leader Silvio Mazzuca on his world tour
At stops along the historic tour, Gillespie and his band often played with local musicians, and in Argentina, discovered pianist Lalo Schifrin. He joined the band and went on to become an important composer of film and television scores.

Schifrin took part in the USC commemoration, and recalled that Argentina was open to the new music because the country had just gone through a dramatic political change. Dictator Juan Peron was removed from power the year before the band came.

"So they came at the right moment because there was a revolution, and Peron was deposed," said Schifrin. "There was a feeling of freedom in Argentina."

Legendary¹⁵ music producer Quincy Jones, just 23 at the time, was a trumpeter and music director for the Gillespie tour. He recalls an incident when jazz bridged the gap between America and its critics, after Cypriot students stoned the U.S. embassy in Athens. Jones says the band was in Ankara, Turkey, when a call came from the White House with a plea.

"'Send the Gillespie band over there! That band can handle it, you know.' And we played there and in the audience were all these revolutionary students," he said. "They stormed the stage afterwards. You know, we were scared to death - trust me. And they ran up on the stage and they grabbed Dizzy and put him up on their shoulders, and they said 'Dizzy, Dizzy, Dizzy.' That is the power of what the music is about."

The tour took place at a time when the band's mostly black musicians faced discrimination at home, and a U.S.-owned hotel in Argentina refused to let the band stay there.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a video message that the music of Dizzy Gillespie offered the hope of freedom at a time when liberty was denied to many at home. She says the innovative music conveyed the country's future promise through a liberating¹⁶ message that resonated with millions.

1 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

2 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

3 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

4 improvisational   

adj. 即兴的

参考例句：

• I have never been at games like charades or improvisational acting. 您从来都唔擅长玩“有口难言”或者“即席表演”之类既游戏。
• I'm practicing self-control, those random and improvisational acts aren't allowed. 我在练习控制自己，那些随意的、即兴的举动是不允许的。

5 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

6 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

7 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

8 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

9 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

10 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。

11 moody   

adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的

参考例句：

• He relapsed into a moody silence.他又重新陷于忧郁的沉默中。
• I'd never marry that girl.She's so moody.我决不会和那女孩结婚的。她太易怒了。

12 cull   

v.拣选；剔除；n.拣出的东西；剔除

参考例句：

• It is usually good practice to cull the poorest prior to field planting.通常在实践上的好方法是在出圃栽植前挑出最弱的苗木。
• Laura was passing around photographs she'd culled from the albums at home.劳拉正在分发她从家里相册中挑选出的相片。

13 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

14 improvise   

v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成

参考例句：

• If an actor forgets his words，he has to improvise.演员要是忘记台词，那就只好即兴现编。
• As we've not got the proper materials,we'll just have to improvise.我们没有弄到合适的材料，只好临时凑合了。

15 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

16 liberating   

解放，释放( liberate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Revolution means liberating the productive forces. 革命就是为了解放生产力。
• They had already taken on their shoulders the burden of reforming society and liberating mankind. 甚至在这些集会聚谈中，他们就已经夸大地把改革社会、解放人群的责任放在自己的肩头了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）