The Jazz Ambassadors - a remarkable story of music, diplomacy and race
Pacific Symphony, as a community partner of the Newport Beach Film Festival, is proud to co-present the screening of this documentary film about the power of music.
The Jazz Ambassadors
Monday, April 30 at 7:45 p.m, Edwards Big Newport
Wednesday, May 2 at 12 p.m. Starlight Triangle Square Cinemas
The Cold War and Civil Rights movement collide in this remarkable story of music, diplomacy, and race. In 1955, as the Soviet Union’s pervasive propaganda about the U.S. and American racism spread globally, African-American Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. convinced President Eisenhower that jazz was the best way to intervene in the Cold War cultural conflict.
For the next decade, America’s most influential jazz artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Dave Brubeck, along with their racially-integrated bands, traveled the globe to perform as cultural ambassadors. But, the unrest back home forced them to face a painful moral dilemma: promoting the image of a tolerant America abroad when the country still practiced Jim Crow segregation. This documentary reveals how the U.S. State Department unwittingly gave the burgeoning Civil Rights movement a major voice on the world stage just when it needed one most.
Full Schedule at NewportBeachFilmFest.com
Newport Beach Film Festival
And don't miss Pacific Symphony's silent film screening with live organ score.
Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror
Sunday, April 29 at 3 p.m. Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
Dennis James, organ
Considered the first-ever vampire movie, “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” tells the story of a naive real estate agent trapped in a castle in Transylvania after discovering his client, the rich count, is a vampire. Watch this 1922 classic come to life as organist Dennis James provides a chilling soundtrack on the 4.322-pipe William J. Gillespie Concert Organ.
Tickets start at just $10!
Series Sponsors: Valerie & Barry Hon