Interview with Voice of America’s Jazz Host Russ Davis
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Question: Can you tell us about the history of jazz at VOA?
Davis: After the Second World War, the United States wanted to present the best of what America had to offer so that the folks behind the Iron Curtain would get the right idea about what we were all about. Of course, in my view and the view of Willis Conover, the other fellow who talked jazz on the Voice of America, jazz is the ultimate thing we have to offer. What is the best thing we can offer to the world? Well, it’s our wonderful arts. Our music from blues to jazz to rock …
Right after the raising of the Iron Curtain in the late 1940s, Willis Conover was hired to present a jazz program on a daily basis. That’s a difference between his program and mine; he was on most every day, Music USA it was called, and it was jazz. He was a great jazz fan and he did it until he died in 1996. They reran some of his programs until they decided to find a new host and luckily they decided to invite me to be the host of Jazz America in 1999 and it goes on today. And forward forever we hope.
Q: Besides the name change from Music USA to Jazz America and the change from daily to weekly, are there other changes to the program? Is the music different?
A: Yes it is. There are some things that are the same. I know that Willis had a terrific rapport and even friendship with some of the most famous players of the day and he had many on the air as guests, playing their music, and I do the same. That’s one thing that’s consistent. I play a lot of the same music that he played.
But of course, there have been so many changes in jazz. It’s evolved into a worldwide art form, and the program reflects all those subgenres of jazz. Probably a little more than Willis did. In fact, John Stevenson hired me to the program because they wanted someone with a broader attitude about what jazz is. Jazz is not something stuck in the 20th century, it’s not just simply swing rhythms, it’s not just acoustic music, it’s not just born of New Orleans jazz, but it’s reflective of all styles of jazz.
I brought in electric jazz; I focus on everything that’s possible in jazz. I think that Willis Conover was very much of a purist and a traditionalist and not as accepting of jazz fusion or electric jazz as I am.
Q: Can you tell us about the international jazz scene?
Jazz musicians Paquito D’Rivera and Valery Ponomarev play at a concert in tribute to Voice of America’s Willis Conover on September 17, 2007, at VOA headquarters.
Jazz musicians Paquito D’Rivera and Valery Ponomarev play at a concert in tribute to Voice of America’s Willis Conover.
A: Just as you were calling, I was editing an interview with keyboardist Amina Figarova, who’s originally from Azerbaijan, which was of course behind the Iron Curtain. As a very little girl, she heard Voice of America as her first chance to hear jazz and learn about America. Now she’s based in Holland.
There is a tremendous amount of European jazz being created these days. They don’t even call it jazz, they call it improvised music. I’m in touch with artists from around the world. You even get some improvised music in the Middle East and there are some fantastic African improvisers.
France has a long history of jazz improvisers. Many of them were smitten with jazz. I know Jean Luc Ponty, the French violinist, has told me that hearing John Coltrane changed his life forever. Ponty saw Coltrane at a concert and he just had to understand what Coltrane was doing. So we’ve spread the word and planted the seed all around the world. We’re the ones that created jazz and they’ve taken the freedom of jazz and turned it into their own special style.
One last thing, it’s related to what Amina Figarova told me after her performance. I said to her, in America, much of jazz is blues-based, which was born in West Africa and brought to America. And then we added the European 12-tone scale and European instrumentation, the call and response from the days of slavery, and created our own unique music. We have a soul born of the blues.
When I heard your performance, I heard a European soul. She said yes, I believe it’s born from classical music and that sort of structured style and our own folk music. So that’s how they create their unique style of jazz and improvised music. They take that spirit of freedom in our music and make it their own.
International jazz is alive. It’s their unique blending of styles to create their own unique soul.
Q: Which countries hear your broadcast?
A: We’re not only the shortwave system, which reaches 134 million people around the world, but we’re also heard on the Music system, which is our music entertainment system on the Internet. We’re almost like a production company. We offer our service to any radio anywhere in the world that has a dish that can take our satellite feed.
Most of the people that listen to my broadcast, according to the e-mails I receive, probably would be from Africa, then Europe, the Pacific Rim and Asia. Local jazz radio outlets have sprung up around the world because of the proliferation of jazz festivals around the world from Jakarta to Montreux, Switzerland. Every country has its great jazz festivals these days.
Q: What’s your favorite jazz album?
Miles Davis Kind of Blue. It’s nearly 50 years old and it still sounds fresh.
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