The Beat Goes On: Honoring Willis Conover and Celebrating the Power of Music

At the height of his career, which began at VOA in the 1950s, Willis Conover produced 17 shows a week in a tiny studio stacked high with records and tapes from his own collection. Listeners in the Soviet bloc tuned in despite official attempts to jam the signal. A survey in the 1970s found that the American best known in the U.S.S.R. after Richard Nixon was Willis Conover. Many young Russians learned English to imitate him.

My colleague Bud Jacobs told me that he once had the honor of serving as Willis Conover’s escort on a trip to the Soviet Union and said it was like traveling with a rock star. Thought he was not as well known in America, Willis Conover had a huge impact FOR America–he was revered by Russian jazz musicians and won a huge following among overseas radio audiences.

Eleven years after his death, we remember Willis Conover’s life because his work continues to speak. His story is an example of how arts and culture can communicate across borders and can stir the human spirit. Music and cultural programs foster the freedom of expression that is the lifeblood of the arts. They remind audiences across the world that despite differences of language or culture or policy, we share a common humanity.

Our cultural outreach continues today–on VOA with our new program, “Jazz America.” We program many other forms of music on VOA and other broadcasts–Radio Sawa features both American and Arabic pop music to reach out to young people in the Middle East. People in the region tell me that the blend of popular music from both cultures is in itself an important message.

We are also sending American musicians across the world as a vital part of our public diplomacy outreach–I recently enjoyed meeting and listening to a performance by a group whose music is described as Latino,Asian, fusion funk–a band named Ozomatli, which has played to huge and enthusiastic crowds in Jordan,Tunisia, Egypt, Nepal and India. Ozomatli’s music delivers a multi-racial, multi-ethnic message about respecting and celebrating diversity as something that enriches rather than divides us.

And audiences around the world also are still applauding the jazz that Willis Conover helped introduce–Alvin Atkinson and the Sound Merchants thrilled Dubai audiences this year with their bebop, swing, and classic jazz. And the Charlie Porter Quartet shared their own love of jazz in Nigeria this year.

So the beat goes on. And I am guessing that Willis Conover would be very pleased that we are having a jazz concert tonight in the very building where he did his work, and on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of Dizzy Gillespie’s first overseas tour sponsored by the State Department. I hope you enjoy the performance tonight and thank you for being here as we honor Willis Conover, the Voice of America, our great jazz tradition and the spirit of freedom that is its heart and soul.