Global I.q. Minute With Jim Falk

“America’s secret weapon is a blue note in a minor key,” proclaimed the New York Times. In the late 1950’s, President Eisenhower looked to fight the Cold War using the cool weapon of jazz. The State Department hoped that showcasing popular American music around the globe would not only introduce audiences to American culture, but also win them over as ideological allies in the cold war. Jazz, structured around improvisation within a set of commonly agreed-upon boundaries, was a perfect metaphor for America in the eyes of the State Department. Renowned artists such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Dave Brubeck toured the globe promoting United States’ culture. Brubeck’s father would famously announce before the crowds, “No dictatorship can tolerate jazz, it is the first sign of a return to freedom.” Join us to explore how the U.S. State Department contracted jazz performers to fight the Cold War in the form of Jazz Diplomacy. ABOUT THE PANELISTS Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney is an adjunct professor at UNT Dal