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U.S. Gov. Sends Antiwar Band to Tour Arab World
I had no idea that during the Cold War, the U.S. State Dept. had recruited jazz musicians--Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Charles Mingues--as cultural emissaries, playing gigs all over the world, including Communist countries. That kind of cultural outreach had faded in past decades, but has recently been revived. Hence, the U.S. hiring two-time Grammy winning funk band Ozomatli (which has played several anti-war rallies) to tour the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. "These things cost a little bit of money, but compare it to the cost of not having the standing we had in the past, when people thought they knew us and what we stood for," said U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Francis Ricciardone (the band recently played a concert at Cairo's Citadel. "People talk about it as soft power. But it's real power." Here's a link to the article about their tour in the LA Times.
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