TURKMENISTAN: JAZZ CD RELEASE A HUGE SUCCESS

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 001326 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR SCA/CEN; SCA/PPD, ECA, IIP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV SCUL PINR KPAO TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: JAZZ CD RELEASE A HUGE SUCCESS REF: Ashgabat 737 ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the Embassy hosted an event "releasing" a free compact disk, with songs by the joint Turkmen-American Jazz group supported by the performing arts initiative program in July 2007. One State TV station covered the event and interviewed the Turkmen musicians who had taken part in the series of concerts. However, the planned broadcast of the event was nearly scuttled due to sensitivities in connection with Russian language. Distribution of the CD has been phenomenal with nearly a thousand copies already given away, including to key MFA and government contacts. The CD-release appears to be a successful follow-up which maximizes the impact of this highly successful cultural diplomacy program. END SUMMARY. ¶3. (U) Under a performing arts initiative grant, PAS invited two New York jazz musicians to hold a series of joint Turkmen-American jazz concerts around Turkmenistan during July 2007. The success of the group's Turkmen melodies played in a jazz style was so astounding that PAS decided to produce a CD made from their concert recordings for public distribution. The liner notes include beautiful photos and graphics, Turkmen and Russian language notes on cooperation between the U.S. and Turkmenistan, PAS programming and some background on jazz and the series of concerts from July. The first copies of the CD were presented to the Deputy Chairwoman of the Cabinet of Ministers responsible for Culture, during a mid-November courtesy call with Charge Hoagland. ¶4. (U) The public presentation of the Embassy-produced CD, "Jazz Patterns" for free distribution was held on Friday, November 30, 2007 at the Embassy's Public Affairs section. The event was attended by the "Turkmenistan" TV channel, the musicians who participated in the concerts, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) representative, and several students and faculty members of music schools. (NOTE: the MFA rep politely excused himself early and asked to take several copies of the CD back to the office for colleagues. END NOTE.) RUSSIAN LANGUAGE NEARLY SQUELCHES ANY COVERAGE ¶5. (SBU) On the following Monday, PAS learned that Turkmenistan TV would not air a prepared fifteen minute segment on the CD release because the interviewed Turkmen musicians spoke in Russian. PAO called the station's deputy director and persuaded her to re-examine the issue and not discard an entirely good cultural story which supported President Berdimuhamedov's goals of greater exchange and creativity over a detail like language. By the end of the day, the deputy director agreed to broadcast the segment after editing to remove the Russian language interviews. The broadcast is expected in the next one to two days. NO TV PUBLICITY NEEDED FOR POPULARITY ¶6. (U) PAS is distributing the CDs through the Information Resource Center, the American Corners, Internet Access and Training Centers, as well as through implementing partners IREX and ACCELS, in an effort to bring new visitors into these sites. The first thousand copies have all but disappeared with many locals enthusiastically asking for copies. ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT: In April, MFA told the Embassy that "Turkmen don't like jazz." Now, MFA officials made it a point to get their own copies of the CD. This underscores that post-Soviet bureaucracies (or at least the bureaucrats) can, in fact, change. PAS Ashgabat is proud to note that the joint aspect of the concerts made a huge impression on local audiences. The CD-release appears to be a successful follow-up which maximizes the impact of this highly successful cultural diplomacy program. END COMMENT. CURRAN