CURTIS SANDBERG: "No one traveled back then, if you think about normal people. Who in nineteen fifty-six would get on an airplane and go to Burma? It was just unheard of. Or Thailand? Those were romantic locales for most people. And so the jazz ambassadors were really quite famous and were really hailed as America's diplomats musically. And the legacy that they left is still valid."

BARBARA KLEIN: A jam session is when musicians get together and play whatever they like. The exhibit sponsored by the State Department will travel around the world over the next three years. It includes one hundred photographs from twenty-two years of the Jazz Ambassadors program.

CURTIS SANDBERG: "These guys were remarkable. They braved dangers and sickness. Those were really tough tours. They were kept out very often for up to three months, under some pretty grueling conditions. They were heroes."

STEVE EMBER: Today the State Department has a program called Rhythm Road. It brings together different forms of music, from jazz and blues to Cajun and hip-hop. The aim is to share American music with the world and improve cross-cultural understanding. State Department official Maura Pally says cultural diplomacy remains extremely important in the world today.

MAURA PALLY: "Cultural diplomacy offers us a unique way to connect with people that we otherwise wouldn't. Art and music in particular transcends religious, political, and language divides in a way that nothing else does. "