Watch out for "the Jazz Ambassadors" - your back, that is.
According to Variety, a new movie about Duke Ellington's Jazz band in Iraq in the 1960's is in the pipeline, and it looks good.
Morgan Freeman can usually get me into a movie theater, but this film looks like particularly saucy fare.
In the 1960's, the United States effectively precipitated revolution in Iraq, a geopolitical shift that was a direct cause of the rise of Saddam Hussein.
Duke Ellington's world-famous jazz band was branded a goodwill ambassador and sent to Iraq for a short tour, to help win over the hearts of the clammy-palmed aristocracy in Baghdad, and later, to provide court entertainment for our beloved Emperor Saddam Hussein.
According to this article, the CIA had planted spies in the band, and they participated in the coup of 1963. The film apparently will revolve around how privvy Ellington was - or rather, was not - to the subterfuge unfolding right under his nose, from within his beloved band.
If only I could get to the point where I am influential and important enough that the CIA is embedding spies in my posse and entangling me in world-shaking espionage without my consent. Would make things so much more interesting, so much more sexy.
Definitely putting it on the to-do list.
Other films to watch out for:
The Last King of Scotland - based on popular novel by Giles Foden.
Idlewild - musical starring rap duo Outkast, certainly not to be missed.
That should be enough free advertising for the movie industry for a while...
Morgan Freeman can usually get me into a movie theater, but this film looks like particularly saucy fare.
In the 1960's, the United States effectively precipitated revolution in Iraq, a geopolitical shift that was a direct cause of the rise of Saddam Hussein.
Duke Ellington's world-famous jazz band was branded a goodwill ambassador and sent to Iraq for a short tour, to help win over the hearts of the clammy-palmed aristocracy in Baghdad, and later, to provide court entertainment for our beloved Emperor Saddam Hussein.
According to this article, the CIA had planted spies in the band, and they participated in the coup of 1963. The film apparently will revolve around how privvy Ellington was - or rather, was not - to the subterfuge unfolding right under his nose, from within his beloved band.
If only I could get to the point where I am influential and important enough that the CIA is embedding spies in my posse and entangling me in world-shaking espionage without my consent. Would make things so much more interesting, so much more sexy.
Definitely putting it on the to-do list.
Other films to watch out for:
That should be enough free advertising for the movie industry for a while...
posted by American_Zealot at 7:57 PM
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