Jazz at Lincoln Center is presenting four concerts this weekend that will reimagine Louis Armstrong’s and Dave Brubeck’s 1962 album, The Real Ambassadors.
Iola Brubeck and Dave Brubeck during Dave Brubeck Receives The High Note Of Acheivement Award In New York City at Cafe Gray – Time Warner Center in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Jason Kempin/FilmMagic)
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The concerts, part of JALC’s Jazz Appreciation Month celebration, will take place in the Appel Room tonight, April 4, at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. ET, and tomorrow, April 5, at 4:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. ET. The shows tonight also will be available for streaming at jazzlive.com.
The concerts are a collaboration between Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens. Among the musicians who will perform at them are Brubeck’s son, trombonist Chris, singer Shenel Johns, Jazz at Lincoln Center saxophonist Camille Thurman, singer Vuyo Sotashe, singer C. Anthony Bryant and actor Daniel J. Watts. Also performing will be drummer Jake Goldbas; he is directing the concerts and is the former artistic director of programs at the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
Keith Hatschek, director emeritus of music industry studies at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., wrote a multi-award-winning book, The Real Ambassadors, published by the University Press of Mississippi, about Armstrong’s and Brubeck’s collaboration on the album.
According to the press, Hatschek tells the story “of three determined artists: Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck and Iola Brubeck (Dave’s wife and a lyricist) and the stand they took against segregation by writing and performing a jazz musical titled The Real Ambassadors. First conceived by the Brubecks in 1956, the musical’s journey to the stage for its 1962 premiere tracks extraordinary twists and turns across the backdrop of the civil rights movement. A variety of colorful characters, from Broadway impresarios to gang-connected managers, surface in the compelling storyline.
“During the Cold War, the U.S. State Department enlisted some of America’s greatest musicians to serve as jazz ambassadors, touring the world to trumpet a so-called ‘free society.’ Honored as celebrities abroad, the jazz ambassadors, who were overwhelmingly African Americans, returned home to racial discrimination and deferred dreams. The Brubecks used this double standard as the central message for the musical, deploying humor and pathos to share perspectives on American values.
“On September 23, 1962, The Real Ambassadors’s stunning debut moved a packed arena at the Monterey Jazz Festival to laughter, joy and tears. Although critics unanimously hailed the performance, it sadly became a footnote in cast members’ bios. The enormous cost of reassembling the star-studded cast made the creation impossible to stage and tour.
However, the press added, Hatschek’s book “caps this jazz story by detailing how the show was triumphantly revived in 2013 by the Detroit Jazz Festival and in 2014 by Jazz at Lincoln Center. This reaffirmed the musical’s place as an integral part of America’s jazz history and served as an important reminder of how artists’ voices are a powerful force for social change.”
In an interview with Forbes.com this week, Goldbas—who actually performed with Dave Brubeck when he was in high school in Connecticut, as did Johns—said he was grateful to Jazz at Lincoln Center “for championing these stories of integration and cultural exchange and community and togetherness that we need to have more than ever.”