Hot Jazz and the Cold War

Illustrated lecture by Naresh Fernandes, Editor, scroll.in and author of Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The Story of Bombay’s Jazz Age (2017)

Introduction: Dr. Shubha Chaudhuri, Associate Director General (Academic) at Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology, AIIS

In the 1950s and '60s, as the US and USSR battled for global supremacy, India was turned into a musical battleground. The US decided to deploy a most unusual weapon in Asia and Africa: jazz. In an attempt to win hearts and minds, the State Department dispatched some of America's best musicians around the Third World. Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Red Nichols and others performed the subcontinent to demonstrate through their music the openness and dialogue that was at the heart of the American way of life.  

This presentation, with photos and musical clips, will retrace those swinging journeys

(Collaboration: Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology, American Institute of Indian Studies)