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Benny Goodman in Moscow

Benny Goodman played with his band in Moscow (1962) at the CSKA Sport Palace. CSKA stands for Central Sports Club of the Soviet Army. At the height of spy scandal (American U2 spy plane was just shot off the Russian sky) the KGB (Commitee for the State Security) was suspicious of "capitalist provocations," so only a handful of tickets went into Moscow's jazz fans' hands; several thousand tickets were distributed among "ideologically tested" blue-collar Communists through the Party committees at Moscow's industrial facilities. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was present at the concert, but soon got bored by the alien music that he hated, and left during the intermission.

The U2 spy plane incident was in 1960, not 1962. Also, doubt Khrushchev left at intermission because he sat in the VIP box with the American Ambassador and his wife and then went on to a reception at the Ambassador's residence following the concert where he had a lively conversation with Mr. Goodman.

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15y ago

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