U.S. Department of State
12 April 2005
Jazz, Originally American, Now Celebrated Around the World
Voice of America’s “Music Man,” Leo Sarkisian, opens Jazz Appreciation Month
By Helen I. Rouce
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington — “The sound of surprise,” as a famous critic once called jazz,
is being celebrated around the world during the month of April, with a wide
variety of events that keynote the significance of this music in the global
culture.
To help kick off the celebration, longtime Voice of America broadcaster and
noted musicologist Leo Sarkisian recounted the story of his love affair with
jazz and gave his perspective on the music in an interview in March with Al
Murphy at the State Department.
“Jazz has been recognized around the world as our cultural heritage,”
Sarkisian said. “It’s a reflection of American culture,” and its
contributions have enriched music around the globe.
In August 2003, President Bush signed U.S. Public Law 108-72, which
acknowledged jazz as “a rare and valuable national American treasure” that
“has inspired some of the nation’s leading creative artists and ranks as one
of the greatest cultural exports of the United States,” Sarkisian said. “It
has inspired dancers, choreographers, poets, novelists, filmmakers,
classical composers and musicians in every kind of music,” he added.
Sarkisian said that the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, which
initiated the celebration of jazz during the month of April, is sponsoring a
host of programs and performances throughout the month, and is encouraging
other groups and institutions all over the United States to have their own
activities.
A number of other countries as well, he said, are paying tribute to jazz
during the month of April, including Sweden, Germany, Argentina, the United
Kingdom, Japan and Canada. Even music lovers on the Pacific island of Guam
are joining in the worldwide jazz party.
One interesting fact Sarkisian revealed was that in 1964 Dr. Martin Luther
King Junior opened the Berlin Jazz Festival in Germany. He quoted King as
saying: “God has brought many things out of oppression. He has endowed the
creatures with the capacity to create, and from this capacity has flowed the
sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his
environment and many, many different situations.”
“Jazz speaks for life,” Sarkisian said King told those at the festival.
“It’s a wonderful way to describe how important jazz is in our life and how
it is also for the whole world,” Sarkisian said.
He said that King, in his Berlin remarks, made the connection between jazz
and another musical form that originated in America: the blues. King told
the Germans, Sarkisian said, that “the blues tell the story of life’s
difficulties. And if you think for a moment, you will realize that they
take the hardest realities of life and put them into music.” The same could
be said for some jazz compositions.
Sarkisian traced the origins of jazz back to the time of slavery in America,
adding that most writers on the music’s history “always mention Congo
Square” in New Orleans, where the African-Americans who came to the United
States as slaves would perform music in the evenings on instruments brought
from Africa.
“And that’s why we say that jazz is an original American art form,” he said,
“but look at the heavy influence of African music,” with the elements of
improvisation, rhythm, and vocals set to rhythms that have been very
important in the development of jazz.
“And another wonderful thing about jazz,” he said, “is that it changes all
the time . the way the musicians are expressing jazz with their own
imagination.”
Along with affection for his native Armenian music and a well-known love for
African music, Sarkisian has been a jazz enthusiast since his youth.
As a clarinet player in his high-school orchestra, he admired Benny Goodman
and Artie Shaw, both leading jazz clarinetists and bandleaders. When he
later went to live in New York City, he went to jazz clubs almost every
night and heard some of the best talent in jazz: trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie,
vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, and tenor saxophonist Vito Musso.
Later, after he joined the U.S. government, Sarkisian served as an escort
officer on State Department tours for Louis Armstrong and his band when they
visited Tunisia and for Duke Ellington and his band when they went to the
first festival of Negro arts in Dakar, Senegal, in 1965.
Reflecting on jazz music’s international reach, Sarkisian recalled that many
20th century African-American jazz musicians went to live in Paris. He also
noted “the famous Marseilles Hot Club de Jazz in Marseilles — it’s been
there for many years,” and commented that he had lectured on jazz in
Marseilles.
“Britain, of course, has had jazz musicians for a long time,” Sarkisian
observed.
He also recalled “the famous Willis Conover, the great ‘Jazz USA’ man that
was with the Voice of America, and probably one of the most influential
American jazz broadcasters … especially during the Cold War. Everybody in
the Soviet Union knew Willis Conover, and he was greeted everyplace he went
in the various countries in the Soviet Union.”
Sarkisian is known throughout Africa as the host of the radio show “Music
Time in Africa,” which, now in its 40th year, is possibly the
longest-running music program on the Voice of America. He and co-host Rita
Rochelle were recently received in Lagos, Nigeria, by PMAN, the Performing
Musicians’ Association of Nigeria. “The organization now has 30,000
musicians, and at least half of those musicians are all good jazz musicians,
very, very talented musicians,” he said.
He also cited South Africa’s interest in jazz. “Their interest in jazz goes
way back to the early 1900s,” he said, adding that there are “many, many
jazz orchestras and jazz organizations in South Africa.”
In honor of Jazz Appreciation Month, Sarkisian will share his views on jazz
on a U.S. Department of State Web cast/digital video-conference on Monday,
April 18, at 11:30 a.m. GMT.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information
Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: )