U.S. Tries Good-Vibes Diplomacy With Jazz Concerts in Nicaragua

After years of Contra war and the recent expulsion of each others’ ambassadors, relations between Nicaragua and the United States could hardly be more dissonant.

Then along came the good-vibes diplomacy of Clarence (Gatemouth) Brown.

At a pair of free public concerts over the weekend, hundreds of Nicaraguans clapped and stomped away their wartime woes as the versatile guitarist from Louisiana and his four-man combo showed their mastery of blues, country, jazz, Cajun and bluegrass music.

After each two-hour performance in the tropical heat, the 64-year-old musician, a rail-thin figure in a black cowboy outfit, mopped his face with a towel and signed autographs for dozens of new fans, many of them children. A jazz band sponsored by the Sandinista government sent him a congratulatory note tucked into its latest recording.

“We have been taught that the gringos are our enemies, but tonight these gringos won us over,” said Oscar Medrano, a 32-year-old civil engineer. “His music broke down barriers and showed there is a strong identity between the yanqui people and the Nicaraguan people.”

Many in the audiences agreed that Brown’s four-day tour, which ended Monday night, revealed a depth of appreciation for American culture after nearly a decade of hostility between Washington and Managua. Indeed, music is about the only matter that the two governments agree on these days.

Despite U.S. backing for anti-Sandinista rebels and Managua’s shift into alliance with Cuba and the Soviet Union, Nicaraguans of all persuasions still call baseball their national sport and line up for movies like “Superman” and “Breakdance II”--both currently showing here.

But the tour by Brown and his Gate’s Express band was unusual because it was sponsored by the U.S. government--as part of a worldwide program of concerts to promote uniquely American music such as jazz. It was arranged by the same U.S. Embassy that was accused by the Sandinistas in July of directing an internal political campaign to destabilize their revolution.

Since the expulsion that month of U.S. Ambassador Richard H. Melton, and the reciprocal ouster of Nicaragua’s ambassador from Washington, relations have withered to practically zero. The Sandinistas have rejected U.S. aid for child victims of the war, and Washington ruled out disaster relief for Nicaraguans made homeless by Hurricane Joan. Each government has denied entry visas to officials of the other.

But the long-running U.S. concert series hasn’t missed a beat. Days after President Reagan imposed an economic embargo against Nicaragua in 1985, the embassy staged a “Festival of Mountain Music and Dance” here. Four performers have come in the last four months, including Doyle Lawson and his Quicksilver bluegrass band.

Sandinista officials say that such popular, nonpartisan groups are culturally enriching and politically harmless. A U.S. diplomat said the concerts are useful to Washington, too, because “they portray Americans as human beings and not the yanqui devils the Sandinistas say we are.”

Brown is probably the leading musician of his genre to perform here since Duke Ellington played jazz for President Anastasio Somoza’s birthday in 1969, 10 years before the Sandinista takeover. A 1982 Grammy winner, Brown has toured on five continents, and his arrival stirred excitement among Nicaragua’s small circle of jazz and blues enthusiasts.

U.S. Embassy officials did not seek high-level Sandinista approval for the tour. But they worked with the local Sandinista-run cultural center in Granada to stage Brown’s first public show Saturday night. His second concert filled a larger Roman Catholic youth hall in Managua after Sunday Mass.

“Culture is universal, and Nicaraguans have the right to hear the best,” said Sandra Espinoza, manager of the Granada center, which was packed with a standing-room-only crowd of 200. “We are trying to raise the cultural level here, totally apart from politics.”

No Sandinista host mounted the stage to welcome Brown. But both pro-government newspapers gave the tour advance billing, and some local officials were in the audience.

Music lovers listened with incomprehension to most of Brown’s lyrics. Even the embassy official who translated each title into Spanish was stumped by “Blue-Gum Catahoula Alligator-Eatin’ Dog.” But Brown’s magic guitar and fiddle brought the audience alive, and they kept the rhythm as it switched from blues ( “What Am I Living For?”) to Cajun (“Big Mamou”) to bluegrass (“Up Jumped the Devil”).

Among the most enthusiastic foot-stompers were five touring Soviet musicians, in Granada for their own performance. On stage during intermission, a Soviet guitarist swapped stories with Brown’s bass player, Harold Floyd.

“He called me friend and I called him comrade ,” Floyd said. “All he did was ask questions about American music. I gave him an extra set of strings. They’re hard to come by in Russia. Then he kissed my guitar.”

This display of U.S.-Soviet friendship left some Nicaraguans musing hopefully that music might soothe their own country’s bloody conflict.

Asked if his music had such power, Brown said: “Here I see a lot of people who are depressed and poor. I see people starving for something honest and truthful. I can get that across with music.

“I don’t take any side in this conflict,” he said. “I just try to put the music in between them. Anything that will mend instead of tearing them apart.”

Luther Wamble, the guitar player, said the band hoped the variety of their music would show Nicaraguans the diversity of American culture and “how 250 million people somehow get along with each other.”

Others in the band said they feared at first that they might not feel welcome in Nicaragua as official representatives of the United States.

“I discussed this for a long time with my family and friends, and we decided it might be my only chance to come here,” said Floyd, the bass player. “I’m glad I did. Just seeing the way Nicaraguans went crazy for us, I had to fight back tears. They’re suffering so much. I just wish we could do more for them.”