Willis Conover: Broadcasting Jazz To The World Review

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(More customer reviews)As someone who grew up outside the USA and who was introduced to Jazz, English and the USA by Willis Conover through his late night VOA broadcasts of Music USA, I was looking forward to finally have the opportunity to learn about the man behind the voice. Unfortunately, I shall have to keep on waiting.
This book is one of the worst attempts at a biography that I have ever came across. It has no structure, no narrative or logic. It is poorly written and even worse, edited. It misses on all points.
I hope that someone competent will write a real biography of the man who for so many millions was indeed the voice of the USA. He deserves it!

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Willis Clark Conover Jr. was born on December 18, 1920. Known around the world for his Voice of America radio programs, he also traveled the world as a jazz ambassador. Willis Conover: Broadcasting Jazz To The World recounts the story of his talented life.

In America, Conover helped break down racial barriers related to jazz, participating in the famous Newport Jazz Festivals as well as serving on the National Endowment for the Arts to gain funding for jazz events. As a personal friend of Duke Ellington and many other jazz greats, Conover promoted their music over radio stations and at White House jazz concerts. His tenure at Voice of America lasted from 1955 until his death in 1996. Unfortunately, because of Congressional restrictions, his programs were not heard in the United States. The Voice of America, an arm of the Office of War Information, was a federal agency banned from broadcasting in America.

Many of the world's best jazz musicians credit Conover with helping them learn more about jazz. This biography details his professional accomplishments in the world of jazz, including the profound impact he had on the Soviet Union and Eastern European Communist nations.

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