Dizzy Gillespie Leads First US State Department Jazz Tour

In 1956, the US State Department sent Dizzy Gillespie and his integrated big band on a jazz ambassador tour of the Middle East and South Asia, the first such cultural diplomacy mission using jazz. The tour was a deliberate effort to use African American cultural excellence to counter Soviet propaganda about American racial inequality during the Cold War. Gillespie's performances were wildly successful and launched the 'Jazz Ambassadors' program that would send Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and others worldwide.