THE REAL AMBASSADORS (1961)

 

Dave Brubeck and Louis Armstrong at The Real Ambassadors recording session (1961). Photo credit: Don Hunstein

The cast of The Real Ambassadors in rehearsal at St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, CA, for the Monterey Jazz Festival,1962. Back row from left: Howard Brubeck, Danny Barcelona, Eugene Wright, Joe Morello, Billy Cronk, Dave Lambert, Yolande Bavan, Jon Hendricks, Iola Brubeck. Front row from left: Trummy Young, Carmen McRae, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck. Credit: Jack Bradley Collection.

 

OVERVIEW

The Real Ambassadors is a jazz musical written by Dave and Iola Brubeck that addressed racism in America, the music business, and the power of music to bring people together. The jazz musical pointed out the absurdity of segregation and makes the case that artists and jazz musicians are the best and "real" ambassadors to demonstrate a nation's ideals.

The story is set in a fictional African nation called Talgalla, and the protagonist, Hero, is based on the life of Louis Armstrong, America’s first cultural jazz ambassador for the United States State Department who originated this lead role.

Brubeck and Armstrong began their only Broadway/Jazz musical collaboration in September 1961—a cast album recording of "The Real Ambassadors"—with music by Dave and words by his wife Iola Brubeck.

The album was released by Columbia Records in 1962, just before the show's premiere — and only live performance with the original cast — at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival. Despite their efforts, the play never made it to Broadway.

DETAILS

(1961) 60 min. (music, not counting book)

The Real Ambassadors (1961)

1. Everybody's Comin'
2. Cultural Exchange
3. Good Reviews
4. Remember Who You Are
5. My One Bad Habit
6. Lonesome
7. Summer Song
8. King for a Day
9. Blow Satchmo
10. The Real Ambassadors
11. Nomad
12. In the Lurch
13. One Moment Worth Years
14. You Swing Baby (The Duke)
15. Summer Song
16. They Say I Look Like God
17. I Didn't Know Until You ToldMe
18. Since Love Had Its Way
19. Easy as You Go
20. Swing Bells/Blow Satchmo/Finale

A spoken narration is available for concert performances

MUSIC

Dave Brubeck

BOOK

Iola Brubeck

LYRICS

Dave and Iola Brubeck

PREMIERE

First performed in a shortened version of ten tunes at the Monterey Jazz Festival, in Monterey, California, on September 23, 1962.

Cast of the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival performance:
Hero, Louis Armstrong
Girl Singer, Carmen McRae
Side Man, Trummy Young

CHORUS (ambassadors, priests, citizens)
Dave Lambert, John Hendricks, Yolande Bavan (replacing Annie Ross)

NARRATOR, Iola Brubeck

BAND I (Modern)
Dave Brubeck
Joe Morello
Eugene Wright

BAND II (Traditional)
Louis Armstrong
Trummy Young
Joe Darensbourg
Billy Kyle
Billy Cronk
Danny Barcelona

Musical Co-ordinator, Howard Brubeck

RECORDING

Recorded with Dave Brubeck and his band, Louis Armstrong and his band, Carmen McRae, and the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross trio in September and December 1961 at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, NYC. Some of the original tracks were cut from the 1962 LP release. The original tracks were added back in for the 1994 Sony Legacy CD release. No narration has been included on any recording.

ARRANGEMENTS

Arrangements of "Lonesome" and "Summer Song" are available for performance:

Lonesome:
SSAATTBB, a capella, arr. Howard Brubeck

Summer Song:
SATB choir, arr. Dan Coates 
Orchestra, Orchestra & Jazz Combo, and Jazz Quartet, arr. Darius Brubeck
Jazz Combo Orchestration: 22+ca.2+bcl.1/4331/2perc/str

Purchase Sheet Music.

PAST PERFORMANCES

September 23, 1962: Premiere in Monterey Jazz Festival, in Monterey, California

2002: The Real Ambassadors returned to the Monterey Jazz Festival featuring the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Lizz Wright, Roy Hargrove, and Christian McBride.

2013: A revival was presented at the Detroit Jazz Festival with Bill Meyer conducting, and used the same format of a concert performance with narrator as the Brubeck’s had staged at Monterey.

2014: The first performance in New York City at Jazz at Lincoln Center featuring Yolande Bavan, an original vocalist who performed at the Monterey premiere, this time in the role of Narrator.

2016: Rhodes College in Memphis, TN presented two performances of The Real Ambassadors as part of their Brubeck Festival.

2021: The Louis Armstrong House Museum and the Forum for Cultural Engagement through the U.S. Embassy of Moscow, co-presented a new film celebrating the 60th Anniversary of The Real Ambassadors’ Columbia recording. The film features a full concert-version of the work with performances shot in the homes of both Armstrong and Brubeck.

PURCHASE & LICENSING

Click here for licensing information or for more information contact Derry@BrubeckMusic.com

ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS

 

Click here to view the Front, back, and inside covers of the original 1962 LP.

Click here to view the program of the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival

 

WATCH & LISTEN NOW

 

Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Real Ambassadors album, this full concert is co-presented by the Louis Armstrong House Museum and the Forum for Cultural Engagement through the U.S. Embassy of Moscow and features performances shot in the homes of both Armstrong and Brubeck.
Lineup:
Jake Goldbas - Artistic Director/Drums
Alphonso Horne - Trumpet/Voice
Camille Thurman - Saxophone/Voice
Vuyo Sotashe - Voice
Shenel Marie Johns - Voice
Chris Pattishall - Piano
Endea Owens - Bass

 

Watch the 2014 Jazz At Lincoln Center performance of The Real Ambassadors led by pianist and Music Director Peter Martin with bassist Robert Hurst, drummer Ulysses Owens, vocalists Roberta Gambarini, Brian Owens, Vivian Sessoms, Russell Graham, and Ty Stephens, trumpeter James Zollar, and original member of the 1962 performance Yolande Bavan as narrator.

 

Jon Hendricks, Dave Brubeck, and Louis Armstrong at The Real Ambassadors recording session, 1961. Credit: Don Hunstein.

Carmen McRae, Dave Brubeck, and Iola Brubeck at recording session 1961. Credit: Don Hunstein

IOLA BRUBECK’S LINER NOTES FROM THE 1962 ALBUM

 

BEFORE AND AFTER THOUGHTS

Jazz versions of Broadway shows are numerous. Dave says The Real Ambassadors is a Broadway version of a jazz show.

During the summer of '56, while Dave was touring the Eastern jazz circuit, I attended almost every musical event in New York. With the notable exception of "My Fair Lady" nothing on Broadway equalled the emotional impact of Joe Williams, standing in front of the Basie band in Central Park, telling his story through the blues. Why, I asked myself, can't we incorporate some of the true emotion and ironic wit of jazz into our Broadway shows? For years musical comedy has crossed over to the jazz side of the street when writers felt the need for a kind of excitement. Conversely, jazz musicians have borrowed from Broadway's repertoire and have even claimed some show tunes as their own "standards." What, I reasoned, could be more logical than to bring together on more intimate terms these two uniquely American musical forms?

About this time in 1956 (we erroneously dated it as '57 on the recording) Dizzy Gillespie had just returned from a State Department-sponsored tour and the entire jazz community was elated with the official recognition of jazz and its international implications. A story of a cultural exchange tour seemed to offer the possibilities Dave and I were seeking: a reason for the jazz musicians to be on stage to tell their stories through their instruments as well as to sing and act.

There was no question in our minds that the central figure of our play had to be Louis Armstrong. Louis embodies in magnificent proportions all the elements of jazz we wanted others to understand. His horn is his crown and scepter. The music that pours from it contains magic even the magician does not fully comprehend. Anyone who has been caught in Louis' spell can really believe that if he were to blast three times 'round, the walls of hate would come tumbling down! (Louis actually hits concert F above high C in the finale.)

Carmen McRae was our immediate choice to play opposite Louis. Her modern sophistication and wit are but surface facets of an underlying tenderness and depth of feeling that matches Louis'. Obviously, no vocal group but Lambert-Hendricks-Ross could manage to sound like a crowd or a full chorus on demand.

Since The Real Ambassadors is a story about jazz and jazz musicians, it is told primarily through music. Consequently, this LP is crammed to capacity even though it contains only half the score of the show. After five years of writing, rewriting and waiting, suddenly in September 1961 we obtained Louis Armstrong's services for five recording sessions. These sessions had to produce what we were after or the entire project would have been lost.

We have unforgettable memories of those miraculous days…Louis Armstrong's magnificently appealing voice asking, "When will that great day come, when everyone is one; and there will be no mo' misery, when God tells man he's really free!"…the sweet irony of Annie Ross' first "Hallelujah"…the adaptability and quick comprehension of both bands…Trummy's boy-like enthusiasm…the shock of Davey, Jon and Annie's trip-hammer double-time rendition of The Real Ambassador…the gentle heads-together duets of "Pops" and Carmen.

The old master "Pops," the first to arrive at the studio and the last to leave, at our final session wrote on my copy of "Summer Song": “To Mrs. Brubeck. Am very happy. Satchmo Louis Armstrong”. So are we.

— lola Brubeck

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