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