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
Jazz the 1950s and 1960s, Dixieland was one of the most commercially popular jazz styles in the US, Europe, and Japan, although critics paid little attention to it. In 1944, jazz impresario Norman Granz organized the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles, which helped make a star of Nat "King" Cole and Les Paul. In 1946, he founded Clef, discovering Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson in 1949 and merging Clef with his new label Verve in 1956, which advanced the career of Ella Fitzgerald. By the end of the 1940s, the nervous energy and tension of bebop was