Be-bop emissaries

Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson plays piano at the Newport-Belgrade Jazz Festival in the former Yugoslavia in 1973, wearing a checkered suit and a smile on his face.

Duke Ellington blows kisses from a white convertible to an enamored crowd at the Tamil Union Oval before a performance in 1972 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Lucille Armstrong films her husband Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong sitting on a camel in Giza, Egypt, in 1961. He's playing the trumpet.

These photographs and many more are on display at the Kinston Community Council for the Arts through Dec. 6, in an exhibition aptly named "Jam Session: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World."

The photographs were taken by State Department photographers documenting a bit of cultural diplomacy during the height of the Cold War, according to Executive Director Sandy Landis. Jazz musicians from the United States - and Canada - brought an exclusively American-made musical form to countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the former U.S.S.R.

"I think this show documents a part of history many of us don't remember or weren't here to experience," she said.

Photographs adorn the walls of the center as jazz music from the artists in the photographs plays from the speakers, immersing those inside in a different world. Landis said because of the extent of the exhibit, there's much to see and experience.

"We want people not just to experience it one time," she said. "We encourage them to come in numerous times."

The show itself is free of charge, though some events such as the reception do cost a nominal amount Landis said she hoped was not prohibitive.

Still, the Meridian International Center photography exhibit itself is only one of many jazz-related events happening in the community.

In conjunction with David Leonhardt, of the David Leonhardt Jazz Trio, the center is offering a Jazz For Kids program in the schools that culminates with a jam session for kids and parents alike.

"They actually play jazz with an orientation towards familiar songs, like the Flintstones," Landis said.

Area middle school musicians will also get the chance to be involved in a jazz mentorship program with local musicians. Though the students must be recommended by their music teachers, it is not a school-based initiative, she said. Instead, the focus is passing down Kinston's musical heritage to the next generation.

The exhibit is also a partnership with the developing Music Trail, a program similar to the Blue Ridge Music Trail in the western part of the state.

"It's a two-year process of identifying, interviewing and recording Eastern North Carolina musicians," Landis said. Jazz, blues, gospel, hip-hop and funk musicians from a total of 13 counties - including Lenoir, Greene and Jones - will be a part of the project.

There will be a Web site and the archives from this project will become a part of the Community Council for the Arts.

"We're juggling a lot of balls with this," she said.

With all that's going on, Landis said she really hopes people from the community come out and enjoy an exhibit that's getting international and national acclaim - including a write-up in The New York Times that actually mentioned Kinston.

"We really want people to experience and enjoy it and realize the level of arts in this community is at the level of most of our major cities in North Carolina," she said. "We don't really need to leave this community to experience quality arts."

Vanessa C. Shortley can be reached at (252) 559-1076 or vshortley@freedomenc.com. Check out Vanessa's blog at http://vshortley.encblogs.com.