One evening in 1958, the pianist Dave Brubeck and his quartet gathered in the home of a jazz-loving industrialist on Mumbai's Malabar Hill to chat with a group of Indian musicians led by the sitar maestro, Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan. Then they picked up their instruments and put their new knowledge to work.
The jam session with Mr. Khan, the American pianist said later, changed the way he approached his art. "His influence made me play in a different way," Mr. Brubeck told Jazz Journal International. "Although Hindu scales, melodies and harmonies are different, we understood each other...The folk origins of music aren't far apart anywhere in the world."
In August that year, as the Cold War was growing icier, the U.S. Congress sanctioned funds for the President's Special International Program, an initiative that aimed to showcase the superiority of the American way of life to the world - especially the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa. Jazz quickly became the program's centerpiece. Jazz, after all, was the only home-grown art form the U.S. could boast of. Just as important, it was an African-American art form. At a time when many people in the newly independent world were appalled by the segregation faced by African-Americans in the American South, foregrounding jazz gave Washington the chance to pretend that this discrimination wasn't as harsh as some people imaged it to be.
The substitute instrument didn't cramp his style. The Times of India's music critic was among those who could not contain his appreciation for Brubeck's concert at the Eros Theatre on April 4, 1958. "Pianist most outstanding," reported the newspaper's review, advising, "If you have not yet heard this fantastic group, pinch your neighbor's ticket if necessary but go and hear it. If you have already heard it, go again. It has the inestimable gift of being able to take the starch out of music snobs - and there are so many of us in this great city."
In 1963, the Americans deployed one of the most charming musicians in their arsenal, the dashing Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. Many of Mr. Ellington's sidemen were stars in their own right, so it was no surprise that they were mobbed by autograph seekers when they arrived in Mumbai.
Mr. Ellington was installed in a split-level honeymoon suite at the Taj Mahal Hotel facing the Arabian Sea. Shortly after he checked in, he rang for room service and asked the waiter what food was available. "I begin by reciting my favorites and get all the way down to chicken but he responds to every item by shaking his head side to side," Ellington wrote in his memoirs.
As the 64-year-old Duke realized, cultural exchange was a tricky business.
The jam session with Mr. Khan, the American pianist said later, changed the way he approached his art. "His influence made me play in a different way," Mr. Brubeck told Jazz Journal International. "Although Hindu scales, melodies and harmonies are different, we understood each other...The folk origins of music aren't far apart anywhere in the world."
In August that year, as the Cold War was growing icier, the U.S. Congress sanctioned funds for the President's Special International Program, an initiative that aimed to showcase the superiority of the American way of life to the world - especially the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa. Jazz quickly became the program's centerpiece. Jazz, after all, was the only home-grown art form the U.S. could boast of. Just as important, it was an African-American art form. At a time when many people in the newly independent world were appalled by the segregation faced by African-Americans in the American South, foregrounding jazz gave Washington the chance to pretend that this discrimination wasn't as harsh as some people imaged it to be.
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The substitute instrument didn't cramp his style. The Times of India's music critic was among those who could not contain his appreciation for Brubeck's concert at the Eros Theatre on April 4, 1958. "Pianist most outstanding," reported the newspaper's review, advising, "If you have not yet heard this fantastic group, pinch your neighbor's ticket if necessary but go and hear it. If you have already heard it, go again. It has the inestimable gift of being able to take the starch out of music snobs - and there are so many of us in this great city."
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In 1963, the Americans deployed one of the most charming musicians in their arsenal, the dashing Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. Many of Mr. Ellington's sidemen were stars in their own right, so it was no surprise that they were mobbed by autograph seekers when they arrived in Mumbai.
Mr. Ellington was installed in a split-level honeymoon suite at the Taj Mahal Hotel facing the Arabian Sea. Shortly after he checked in, he rang for room service and asked the waiter what food was available. "I begin by reciting my favorites and get all the way down to chicken but he responds to every item by shaking his head side to side," Ellington wrote in his memoirs.
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As the 64-year-old Duke realized, cultural exchange was a tricky business.
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