1. Investigate the military experiences of African Americans during and following World War II. If possible, focus on the area where you live using primary and secondary sources. You may consider focusing on the experiences of jazz musicians drafted into war. These include Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Sy Oliver, Jo Jones, and Clark Terry.
2. Learn more about bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, Latin jazz, and the artists described in the lesson. Possible topics include: (1) Dizzy Gillespie’s use of Afro–Cuban musicians and their influence on his music, (2) orchestration and arrangements by Gil Evans, (3) big bands of the postwar period (such as Dizzy Gillespie’s) as compared with bands from the Swing Era, and (4) exemplary soloists and the changing role of drummers in bebop bands.
3. Research the history and impact of the worldwide jazz tours organized by the U.S. State Department in the 1950s. Jazz ambassadors like Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie were considered by the State Department to be “goodwill symbols of American democracy.” Yet promoting black artists as symbols of a racial equality that didn’t even exist undermined the premise of the tours. Gillespie, for one, refused to attend State Department briefings, saying he “wasn’t going to apologize for the racist policies of America.” Armstrong refused a 1957 State Department tour to protest President Eisenhower’s initial inactivity in response to the racial conflicts at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Were these State Department tours effective as propaganda? How did jazz artists use the tours as platforms for their own political expression? Are there any comparable events today? What is the role of patriotism in American music?