from The New York Herald Tribune, Nov. 20, 1962

MAN, IT’S JAZZ AT WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON –

Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy put an enthusiastic stamp of approval yesterday on the new Latin American dance rhythm—the Bossa Nova—at the hottest jazz concert ever heard at the White House. Blaring trumpets and the moaning saxophones of the Paul Winter jazz sextet hit a loud, blue note in the sedate, chandeliered East Room. It was the kind of music that would have thrown a jazz festival into wild stomping and clapping. But the young audience—children of diplomats and government officials—were too polite to abandon all reserve In the hallowed halls of the White House and sat quietly as the combo beat out modern jazz tunes. The First Lady, hostess at the fifth in her series of concerts for young people, turned out to be a jazz buff. In breathless tones she told saxophonist Winter … “Simply wonderful. There has never been anything like it here before.” Talking to the 23-year-old jazz sextet leader from Altoona, Pa., Mrs. Kennedy said, “I think it’s so great to see you up there.” She wanted to know all about the origin of the Bossa Nova. He explained that it is a form of jazz first played in Brazil and “evolved from the meeting of African and European cultures.” Mr. Winter said Mrs. Kennedy told him she has an album of his Bossa Nova records which she has been “playing non-stop for two weeks.” “Mrs. Kennedy’s’ reaction at all times was of complete enjoyment,” said Mr. Winter, who is as poised in speaking as he is uninhibited in his saxophone playing. “We lost all our inhibitions when we got out on that stage,” Mr. Winter said. “They were a warm, unpretentious audience.” He also revealed himself as a fan of more modem music. “I love jazz,” he said. The concert lasted an hour and a half and held the audience, made up of the 10- to-19-year-old children of diplomats and government officials, quietly entranced. Mr, Winter. whose sextet Is made up of college students from the Chicago area, introduced each of the numbers. He explained that his combo took up the Latin American music on a tour of Latin America and the Caribbean under a State Department cultural exchange.