Spanish Jazz

Spanish Jazz

Jazz in Spain began with an interest in Dixieland or New Orleans jazz. In that time it evolved into other styles often influenced by visiting Americans. In 1947 Don Byas introduced Tete Montoliu to bebop and later efforts to fuse jazz with flamenco occurred. Catalan and Galician music is also an influence in some regions.

Still, jazz in Spain initially suffered from many difficulties. One example being that the cultural, political, and economic climate was unsuitable for the creativity and freedom required of a jazz movement. This predates Francisco Franco's regime to some extent, but his rule placed far more restraints on jazz, due in part to his regime's restrictions and in part due to Spain being isolated on various cultural fronts, preferring an inward-looking, more easily-digested form of culture. Thus, a particularly fruitful period for jazz in general - the period spanning the 1940s, 1950s and the early 1960s - passed almost unnoticed in Spain. The return to democracy, and the development of the economy, has allowed for there to be an increased jazz scene in the last twenty years.

One particular feature of live jazz in Spain is the multitudinous attendance at outdoor jazz festivals, the first of which, the Donostia-San Sebastian Jazz Festival dates back to 1966. It would not be until the mid-1970s, however, that major international figures would attend the festival, including, over the years, Charles Mingus, Tete Montoliu, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Lionel Hampton, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Rollins, B.B. King, Woody Herman, Freddie Hubbard, Weather Report, Gato Barbieri, Art Blakey, Mercer Ellington, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Clark Terry, and Miles Davis.

The festival held in Vitoria-Gasteiz, set up in 1977, also attracts major international names.

In a related vein Spanish classical or folk music has been an influence on jazz musicians both inside and outside of Spain. Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo has been interpreted by Miles Davis and, in a non-jazz version, by Paco de Lucía.