Full Description
Few musicians shaped Iberian jazz more than pianist Vicenç "Tete" Montoliu i Massana (1933-97). Fascinated by the modernist aesthetics of mid-century jazz, Montoliu was known for a carefully crafted mix of lyricism and dissonance, a penchant for discordant crashes, and a development of highly original compositions. Over the course of his career, he boasted some 100 recordings spanning Denmark, Germany, Holland, Spain, and the United States, and performed with the most notable jazz luminaries including Lionel Hampton, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Dexter Gordon, and Archie Shepp. In drawing from the Black American jazz form, Montoliu fashioned an adjacent critical space shaped by his experiences as a Catalan and a person with congenital visual impairment living under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.
Beyond Sketches of Spain: Tete Montoliu and the Construction of Iberian Jazz explores the artist's life, musical production, and international reception within a cultural studies framework, invoking Fumi Okiji's notion of gathering in difference. In its investigation of this impressive and often overlooked transnational jazz legend, the book moves beyond mere sketches of Spanish nationhood, challenges conventional scholarly narratives, and recovers links between the United States, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and Europe.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Selected Tete Montoliu Vinyl Discography
Note on Theodor W. Adorno and Jazz Criticism
Introduction
Tete's Musical Biography
Anti-Jazz Attitudes and Transnational Encounters in Spain
Jazz as Gathering in Difference
Chapter 1 - Sketches of Flamenco
Sketches of Spain, Francoism and Regressive Listening
Vibing with Lionel Hampton on Jazz Flamenco (1956)
To The European All Stars 1961 and Beyond
Chapter 2 - The Urban Soundscapes of Modern Jazz
Jazz and the City
Tete and the Speed, Spontaneity and Shifting Conditions of Urban Modernity
Europe's Urban Jazz Circuits, Kirk in Copenhagen (1963), and Lliure Jazz (1969)
Chapter 3 - Performing Catalanism
Jazz Age Barcelona and the First International Jazz Festival
Tete's Catalanism, A tot jazz (1965), and the Nova Cançó
Catalan Jazz Composition and Catalonian Folksongs (1977)
Chapter 4 - Blues, Braille and the Metanarrative of Blindness
Disability, Impairment and Tete's Musical Education
Blues Traditions, Sighted Culture, and Disability in Modern Music
Album Covers and the Visual Business of Listening to Jazz
Epilogue - The Jazz Artist in Transnational Popular Culture
Notes
References
Discography and Further Listening
Index
