Willis Clark Conover, Jr. (December 18, 1920 – May 17, 1996) was a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

producer and broadcaster on the

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the State media, state-owned news network and International broadcasting, international radio broadcaster of the United States, United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international br ...

for over forty years. He produced jazz concerts at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

, the

Newport Jazz Festival The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hir ...

, and for movies and television. By arranging concerts where people of all races were welcome, he is credited with desegregating Washington, D.C., nightclubs.Robert McG. Thomas Jr.
"Willis Conover Is Dead at 75; Aimed Jazz at the Soviet Bloc"
, ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', May 19, 1996. Retrieved February 4, 2010. Conover is credited with keeping interest in jazz alive in the countries of Eastern Europe through his nightly broadcasts during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

Youth

As a young man, Conover was interested in science fiction, and published a

science-fiction fanzine A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" was ...

, ''Science Fantasy Correspondent''. This brought him into contact with horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The correspondence between Lovecraft, who was at the end of his life, and the young Conover, has been published as ''Lovecraft at Last''. Conover's father had intended for him to attend

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one of six senior military colleges in the United States. ...

and follow his family's history of military service. Instead, he attended the Maryland State Teacher's College at Salisbury, Maryland, and became a radio announcer for

WTBO WTBO is an oldies formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Cumberland, Maryland, serving Cumberland and Frostburg in Maryland and Keyser in West Virginia. WTBO is owned and operated by Forever Media. History On December 13, 1928, WTBO sig ...

Cumberland, Maryland Cumberland is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland. It is the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 19,076. Located on the Potomac River, ...

. He later moved to Washington, D.C., and focused on jazz in his programming, especially the

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...

hour on Saturday nights. His guests on this program and Saturday morning shows included many artists, such as

Boyd Raeburn Boyd Albert Raeburn (October 27, 1913 – August 2, 1966) was an American jazz bandleader and bass saxophonist. Career He was born in Faith, South Dakota, United States. Raeburn attended the University of Chicago, where he led a campus band ...

Voice of America

Conover came to work at the

, and became known to jazz lovers via the hour-long program '' Voice of America Jazz Hour''. His slow delivery and the use of scripts written in "special English" made his programmes more widely accessible and he is said to have become the first teacher of English to a whole generation of East European jazz lovers. Conover was not well known in the United States, even among jazz aficionados, as the Voice of America did not broadcast domestically except on

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

, but his visits to Eastern Europe and

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

brought huge crowds and star treatment for him. He was a celebrity figure in the Soviet Union, where the Voice of America was a prime source of information as well as music. In 1956, Conover conducted a series of interviews with jazz musicians such as

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

Stan Getz Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre ...

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalis ...

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His conc ...

, and

Art Tatum Arthur Tatum Jr. (, October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest in his field. From early in his career, Tatum's technical ability was regarded by fellow musicians as extraord ...

. His interview with Tatum is reputedly "the only known in-depth recorded interview with the pianist". These interviews were selected by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

as a 2010 addition to the

National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservat ...

, which selects recordings annually that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Death

Conover died of lung cancer on May 17, 1996, at age 75. He had been a smoker for 57 years.James Lester
"Willis of Oz"
, '' Central Europe Review'', Vol. 1, No. 5, July 26, 1999. Retrieved February 4, 2010. In 2001, on the fifth anniversary of his death, US Embassy in Moscow and Moscow jazz society co-organized a commemorative concert in Moscow.

Legacy

Conover's broadcasts influenced a wave of Russian and Polish jazz musicians, such as

Leo Feigin Leo Records is a British record company and label which releases jazz from Russian, American, and British musicians. It concentrates on free jazz. Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin (also known under his broadcasting name Aleksei Le ...

and

Adam Makowicz Adam Makowicz (born Adam Matyszkowicz; 18 August 1940) is a Polish pianist and composer living in Toronto. He performs jazz and classical piano pieces, as well as his own compositions. Biography Adam Makowicz was born into a family of ethnic ...

. In 1990, Conover was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

. In 2015, the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School, ...

announced its Willis Conover Collection would make digitized copies of Conover's programs available online.

References

External links

* * Doug Ramsey
"Willis Conover"
Rifftides, October 29, 2005.
Article about Willis Conover from the Voice of America web site

* ttp://deepanjannag.blogspot.com/2007/10/willis-conover-tells-his-story.html Willis Conover tells his story
Voices of Freedom: A Celebration of VOA Jazz and Willis Conover
* Article about Conover's interest in science fiction and fantasy, including his correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft.
The Willis Conover Collection at the University of North Texas
* David Brent Johnson
"Conover’s Coming Over: Willis Conover and Jazz at the VOA"
Indiana Public Media (NPR program), November 12, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Conover, Willis 1920 births 1996 deaths American radio producers Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Deaths from lung cancer Salisbury University alumni Science fiction fans Jazz radio presenters Voice of America people