The Jazz Ambassadors
The Jazz Ambassadors

The Jazz Ambassadors (2018)

2018-05-04

(GB) •

Documentary

The untold story of America's coolest weapon in the Cold War

7.0/10

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Score

Overview

The Cold War and Civil Rights collide in this remarkable story of music, diplomacy and race. Beginning in 1955, when America asked its greatest jazz artists to travel the world as cultural ambassadors, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and their mixed-race band members, faced a painful dilemma: how could they represent a country that still practiced Jim Crow segregation?

Movie Cast

The Jazz Ambassadors

Leslie Odom Jr.

Narrator

The Jazz Ambassadors

Quincy Jones

Self

The Jazz Ambassadors

Dizzy Gillespie

Self (archive footage)

The Jazz Ambassadors

Louis Armstrong

Self (archive footage)

The Jazz Ambassadors

Darius Brubeck

Self

The Jazz Ambassadors

Bill Crow

Self

The Jazz Ambassadors

Duke Ellington

Self (archive footage)

The Jazz Ambassadors

Charlie Persip

Self