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Dizzy Gillespie 's 1956 World Tour

Decent Essays

Farzam Abdi
Dizzy Gillespie’s 1956 World Tour

In 1956 Dizzy Gillespie embarked on a musical tour that was founded by the U.S State Department. He and his band travelled to other side of the world and other boundaries outside U.S in the name of cultural diplomacy and to show the world the new culture that was developing in the U.S through the language of music, a culture with hope, no racial boundaries, gender equality and freedom. USC Professor Nicholas Cull explains the degree of importance of cultural diplomacy, "America woke up to the need to communicate effectively with the rest of the world." (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6276832, October 16 2006).
The tour went around South Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe. Dizzy was considered a suitable candidate for leading the tour and was recommended by Powell to the head of the State Department. He had played in New York’s Basin Street, the Showboat in Washington and as the headliner in Birdland. For Dizzy, this was an opportunity to work in a bigger band since his big band broke up in the early 1950s due to economical reasons. “I went to Washington once, in 1956, playing with a small group at the Showboat, and received a call from him (Adam Powell) saying come down to the House Office Building the next day because he had something to tell me. I arrived there and all these reporters were standing around, and then Adam made a statement: ‘I’m going to propose to President Eisenhower that he send this

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