Bombay, India, 1958
Brubeck was deeply impressed by improvisation in Indian music and jazz. His experience accompanying renowned sitar player Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan led him to play in a different way. “We understood each other,” the American explained, and despite the differences between Eastern and Western scales, harmonies, and melodies, the music was a basis for real dialogue. Courtesy of the Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Copyright Dave Brubeck. |
Baghdad, Iraq, 1958
After performing for local and expatriate audiences in Iran, Brubeck and his group touched down in this ancient city for the last stop of their government tour. In this photograph, the musician holds an envelope containing U.S. government documents. Courtesy of the Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Copyright Dave Brubeck. |
Krakow, Poland, 1958
The affection Polish audiences held for the Brubecks’ children, Michael and Darius, who accompanied the Quartet on tour, contributed to the warm welcome enjoyed by the musicians. A small group of jazz buffs followed the band from city to city, establishing a close friendship with the family and remaining in touch with them for decades afterward. Courtesy of the Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Copyright Dave Brubeck. Photograph by Paul Desmond. |
L to R: Joe Morello (drums; obscured); Dave Brubeck (piano); Eugene Wright (bass); Paul Desmond (saxophone).
Poznan, Poland, 1958 Jazz was illegal here until the October Revolution of 1956 and the emergence of the quasi-independent Gomulka government. Brubeck felt a deep affinity for local jazz fans, and at this final performance of their Polish tour the Quartet played Dave’s new composition, Dziekuje, or “thank you very much,” a tribute to Chopin and the people of Poland. Courtesy of the Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Copyright Dave Brubeck. |
L to R: Iola Brubeck (background); Louis Armstrong (trumpet); Dave Brubeck; Trummy Young (trombone).
Monterey, California, 1962 This jazz musical was praised for its swinging juxtaposition of disparate musical styles. To keep it topical, the Brubecks rewrote the libretto for nearly five years, doing so with Louis Armstrong in mind and incorporating many of Satchmo’s public statements while on tour. Courtesy of the Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Copyright Dave Brubeck. Photograph by Jerry Stoll, San Francisco. |
L to R: Gerry Mulligan (saxophone); Dave Brubeck (piano); Jack Six (bass); Alan Dawson (drums; not visible).
Warsaw, Poland, 1970 The classic Quartet that had toured in 1958 disbanded in the 1960s, but Brubeck was thrilled to return to Warsaw for a State Department-Newport Jazz Festival gig – this time with renowned saxophonist Mulligan. Courtesy of the Brubeck Collection, Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Copyright Dave Brubeck. |
The Timing Was Right
The 1958 State Department tour of jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck and his integrated classic Quartet, with saxophonist Paul Desmond, drummer Joe Morello, and bassist Eugene Wright, marked the first foray of the Jazz Ambassadors across the Iron Curtain. The group began the trip after a commercial gig in Stockholm, traveling through East Germany to Poland, and from there to Turkey, India, Ceylon, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Their itinerary then took them into Iran and Iraq on the eve of a major political crisis in the Middle East.
The experience of crossing into East Berlin to acquire the visas needed for Poland inspired Brubeck’s composition Brandenburg Gate. Once in Poland, he and his family developed an affinity for local jazz musicians whom they considered very good. Brubeck often spoke at his performances, and drew tremendous applause when he said, “No dictatorship can tolerate jazz. It is the first sign of a return to freedom.” For their last concert, in Poznan, he wrote a song called Dziekuje, Polish for “thank you,” that included a Chopinesque introduction in acknowledgement of the reverence for Chopin in Poland. Backstage one Polish jazz enthusiast asked, “Why don’t the artists rule the world?”
Brubeck and his Quartet traveled on to Asia where their admiration for the non-Western music they encountered could be heard in their own evolving style. Dave relished the opportunity to learn about new music, and in one instance tried to capture some of India’s sounds in his Calcutta Blues by incorporating Indian rhythms into the composition. When the band arrived in Istanbul, they were greeted by a Turkish group that serenaded them with the Quartet’s own arrangement of Tea for Two. In Ankara, they invited local musicians to join them onstage, and jammed fifteen choruses of All the Things You Are. Brubeck based his work The Golden Horn on the rhythmic pattern of the Turkish phrase, çok teşekkür ederim or “thank you very much.” The song, named for the narrow inlet of the Bosphorus that divides Istanbul, sought to evoke the bridge between Europe and Asia by combining a Turkish theme with Western harmony.
Keen observers of the State Department jazz tours and first-hand participants, Dave and his wife Iola later celebrated and satirized these trips in their 1961-1962 musical The Real Ambassadors, a collaboration undertaken with Louis Armstrong. As writer and lyricist Iola underscored, “the entire [American] jazz community was elated with the official recognition of jazz and its international implications.” Yet as the charismatic ambassadors, many of them African Americans, returned to the United States, the country’s racial problems had not been resolved. Within this context, the Brubecks wanted to honor Armstrong’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, and also to emphasize his key role as a musical diplomat. The Real Ambassadors was performed at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival to great critical acclaim, and the recorded album and subsequent CD continue to be widely appreciated.