The Jazz Ambassadors

The Jazz Ambassadors

60 mins | Documentary | May 4, 2018

The Cold War and Civil Rights collide in this remarkable story of music, diplomacy and race. Beginning in 1955, when America asked its greatest jazz artists to travel the world as cultural ambassadors, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and their mixed-race band members, faced a painful dilemma: how could they represent a country that still practiced Jim Crow segregation?

The Jazz Ambassadors

60 mins | Documentary | May 4, 2018

The Jazz Ambassadors
The Cold War and Civil Rights collide in this remarkable story of music, diplomacy and race. Beginning in 1955, when America asked its greatest jazz artists to travel the world as cultural ambassadors, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and their mixed-race band members, faced a painful dilemma: how could they represent a country that still practiced Jim Crow segregation?
IMDb rating 7.6
Producers Antelope Films, Normal Life Pictures
Original title The Jazz Ambassadors
Directors Hugo Berkeley
Writers

Cast

Leslie Odom Jr.

as Narrator

Quincy Jones

as Himself

Dizzy Gillespie

as Himself (archive footage)

Louis Armstrong

as Himself (archive footage)

Darius Brubeck

as Himself

Bill Crow

as Himself

Duke Ellington

as Himself (archive footage)

Charlie Persip

as Himself