Satchmo in Romania
Jazz legend Louis Armstrong performs in Romania as part of his historic 1965 East European tour.
Cristina Mateescu, 04.10.2024, 14:00
In the spring of 1965, at the height of the Cold War, the “Louis Armstrong and his All Stars” band embarked on an historic tour behind the Iron Curtain taking in East Germany Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, followed, in summer, by Hungary. The band met with ecstatic receptions everywhere they went. Indeed, jazz music was rapidly growing in popularity at the time across the entire Eastern bloc. That being said, things had not always been so. In the early days of communist rule, jazz was viewed with suspicion, being considered a symbol of the decadent American way of life.
However, by 1965 the communist authorities in Eastern Europe had relaxed their stance on jazz, not least on account of its association with the civil rights movement, which they supported, and its roots in African American culture. The United States itself had long been aware of the potential of jazz to break down ideological barriers and promoted it vigorously among foreign audiences, prompting the New York Times to name jazz “America’s secret sonic weapon”. Against this backdrop, Louis Armstrong turned out to be one of America’s most effective jazz ambassadors – not least in Romania, where the concerts he gave in 1965 would become the stuff of legend for generations to come.
This episode in the series contains various archive recordings, including a live report of Louis Armstrong’s arrival in Bucharest and clips from his press conference.
