White House Sketches
Jazz and Jambalaya at the Carter White House
June 18, 1978
President Carter with Dizzy Gillespie. Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
President Jimmy Carter hosted a jazz festival on the South Lawn of the White House to “pay tribute to a unique American art form.” Before the concert began at 6:30 p.m., the guests enjoyed a jambalaya buffet cooked in four open pots under the watchful eye of the Jambalaya Association from Louisiana.
The performers included jazz greats Eubie Blake, Earl “Fatha” Hines, Dizzy Gillespie and Lionel Hampton along with younger artists Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and George Benson.