For decades, U.S. musicians have travelled the world offering beats and solos in a cultural exchange designed to promote better understanding between countries.
This tradition of musical diplomacy dates back to the mid-1950s, when the US State Department invited jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan to perform in countries where few people had seen concerts by American musicians.
These jazz ambassadors travelled to Africa, Europe, the Middle East, South America and South Asia, drawing huge crowds. They visited schools and worked with local musicians. Many played a raucous, free-flowing style of music that some say mirrors the lively debate that often occurs in American society and reflects its democracy.
Sharing freedom
“In jazz, you are not afraid to improvise. In jazz, you have to listen,” Nicholas Cull, a professor of public diplomacy at the University of Southern California, told Voice of America in 2009. “Those are both profoundly central aspects of the American political system. And you cannot listen to that music without experiencing those principles and sharing in that freedom.”
Or as Willis Conover, who hosted VOA’s Jazz Hour for 41 years, put it in the 1950s: “People love jazz because they love freedom. In 1955, the New York Times called jazz America’s “secret sound weapon” in the Cold War.
As times changed, US music diplomacy expanded to reflect America’s diverse musical genres:The State Department’s American Music Abroad program sends a new generation of musical ambassadors to 30 countries each year, performing genres ranging from rock ‘n’ roll to country, hip-hop to gospel. American Music Abroad performers and educators have visited more than 110 countries on six continents.
Next Level, a celebration of hip-hop, sends performers and dance, music and arts educators abroad to promote understanding among young and underserved communities.
The OneBeat exchange programme brings together cross-genre musicians from around the world to make music and develop strategies to address common challenges. In 2022, musicians from the US and North Africa met in Algeria to record, perform, and examine the black diasporic musical traditions that shape their societies. Through OneBeat, more than 500 musicians from 68 countries have travelled to 49 cities in 13 countries, including the United States.
Building common purpose
In 2022, President Biden signed into law the bipartisan Promoting Peace, Education, and Cultural Exchange (PEACE) Through Music Diplomacy Act, which calls for music diplomacy partnerships to include the private sector and to recognise musicians who have contributed to peace.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a music enthusiast and self-described amateur guitarist, says the work of American musicians “gets people to see each other’s humanity, builds a sense of common purpose, changes the minds of those who misunderstand us, and tells the American story in a way that no policy or speech ever could”.
