Today we’re talking with guest, Larry Tye, about how the joyful swinging sounds of jazz broke through racial barriers during the time of Jim Crow – not only in America – but across the world — and how famous jazz men, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong & Count Basie, basically wrote the soundtrack for the Civil Rights movement in America.

ABOUT LARRY TYE
My guest is Larry Tye, New York Times bestselling author who has written nine books – including his recent, The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong & Count Basie Transformed America. From 1986 to 2001, Tye was an award-winning reporter at The Boston Globe, where his primary beat was medicine. Tye graduated from Brown University, was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and taught journalism at Boston University, Northeastern, and Tufts.

In the preface to his book, The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong & Count Basie Transformed America, Larry Tye states:

• “This book lies at the intersection of two American stories — one about this country at it most hidebound and straightlaced, the other about jazz, the all-American music form, at its most locomotive and sensuous. We’ll follow those contortions in the enclosed and electrifying settings of honky tonks – and concert halls.” 

Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong & Count Basie were trailblazers who brought jazz to the masses and in so doing, broke racial boundaries. Ultimately, they became global ambassadors for the United States as they exported their joyful swinging sounds and brought crowds to their feet. For more information, you can read Larry Tye's deeply researched book, The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong & Count Basie Transformed America.

It’s ironic that the grandson of slaves, an abandoned son raised by a family of Lithuanian Jews, and the son of a coachman & laundress rose to fame and became the face of jazz on the international stage – they met the Queen, were toasted by numerous Presidents, were on the celebrity A-list.  Because of them, people began to see black men in a different light. The Jazzmen created the soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement and opened doors for those to come.

My question for you:  Can we help lift and unify the world through our art forms? Can we go go viral with the expression of joy? What would you rather experience and support – doom and negativity – or joy and hope? Perhaps the example of these jazzmen shows us the way.

Thanks for listening. Have an inspired week – and live your joy!

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