To Russia with Jazz (2011)

Using archival footage, concert recordings, and interviews with a number of American musicians and Soviet artists who took part, the film documents the Benny Goodman Orchestra’s tour. In interviews, musicians John Bunch, Bill Crow, Jerry Dodgion, Phil Woods, Joe Wilder, and singer Joya Sherrill describe their experiences during the tour. David Goloshchekin and Gennady Golstein recount their encounters with the American visitors, including a late-night jam session in Leningrad. Phil Woods, for instance, tells the anecdote of the “talking bushes” in Moscow’s Gorky Park: because people were too afraid to address the American visitors directly and did not speak English, they simply called out the names of musicians they knew, and the Goodman musicians responded with more names. After Goodman’s visit, Gennady Golstein was invited on a fully funded tour of the United States. But fearing that he might be mistaken for a spy and arrested, his wife burned the letter.