Melvin L. Butler

Music has never comprised a cornerstone of US diplomatic negotiations around the world. As John Brown states, “A neglected aspect of our cultural diplomacy—at least as our foreign interlocutors see it—has been the poverty, both quantitative and qualitative, of its artistic dimension.”1 Nevertheless, some renowned artists were sent abroad in the 1950s Cold War era, when the US State Department sought to win over emerging nations to the “Western” side.2 Having the State Department officially express its support for jazz was seen as a major milestone for arts recognition, and it prompted Down Beat magazine to hail it “a Utopian dream come true.”3 The phrase “jazz diplomacy” most often refers to this Cold War effort on the part of the US government to promote an anticommunist message during the 1950s and 1960s.4