There were many poignant moments, perhaps none quite so as this surprise visit to a monument arranged by Jazz Section leader Karel Srp.
The plaque (seen above) commemorates the planting of trees in the 1980s by several visiting writers to Prague (Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike, Gordon Skilling) and lists Jazz Section supporters at the Embassy in Prague, including the author of this blog and John Brown, Madeleine Albright, Wendy Luers and Sam Westgate. The trees--like the Jazz Section--and Democracy in Prague-- are still alive and thriving despite changes and the pace of history.
1 comment:
Dear Mr. Kiehl,
I'm a German scholar writing a habilitation on topic "The reception of Voice of America's jazz broadcaster Willis Conover in the former Eastern Bloc countries (Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia). (for information on me, see http://www.forschungsstelle.uni-bremen.de/de/3/20110606111622/20110620203549/Dr-_Ruediger_Ritter.html).
I did research on the Conover papers in Denton, TX, and have searched for material in Polish, Russian and Czech archives (for a presentation of the habilitation project see my article in "Jazz Perspectives" No. 7/2, 2013, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17494060.2014.892562#.VGnnqsmTKes). In a Czech publication (Karel Srp: Vyjimecne stavy) on the Jazz section in Prague, I've found a picture of you together with the jazz section members. I'm curious to know if you have more material, memories, or documents from your encounters with jazzmen behind the Iron Bloc. Additionally to the forthcoming book, I plan an exhibition on the Jazz-section which will be presented in Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Slovak Republic in 2016. I would be very glad to include your eye-witness perspective in this exhibition!
Of course I can submit details to both the exhibition and the habilitation project. For now I remain with many thanks in advance and best regards,
Rüdiger Ritter
Dr. Rüdiger Ritter
Universität Bremen
Klagenfurter Str. 3
28359 Bremen
Germany
Tel.: 0049 421 218 67368
RRitter@gmx.de
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