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Catalans

Salvador Dalí · Pau Casals · Mercè Rodoreda · Antoni Gaudí · Jacint Verdaguer · Carles Puyol
Total population
ca. 8 million
Regions with significant populations
Spain       Catalonia          (people born in Catalonia) 7,512,381 [1]  France 303,000 [1]  Argentina          (estimates vary) 178,000 or 176,000 [1] [2]  Cuba N.A.  Mexico 54,000 [1]  Germany 49,000 [1]  Peru 39,000 [1]  Andorra 28,000 [1]  Italy 22,000 [1][3]  Chile 16,000 [1]  Venezuela 5,600 [1]  USA          (estimates vary) 1,738 or 700 [1] [4]  Ecuador 850 [5]
Languages
Catalan (native); Spanish and French (as a result of immigration or language shift)
Religion
Roman Catholicism, Atheism, Agnosticism
Related ethnic groups
Valencians, Balearics, Occitans, Aragonese and other Spaniards, Sardinians.

The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia who form a historical nationality in northern Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France (known in Catalonia proper as Catalunya Nord, and in France as the Pays Catalan) sometimes are included in this definition.^[6][7] Also, sometimes Catalan is used to define people from Catalan Countries, which include other areas where the Catalan language is spoken.

Extended concept[link]

The other Catalan-speaking people, namely Andorrans, Valencians, Balearics, some Aragonese, and Alguerese are sometimes identified as a distinct Catalan ethnic group by certain nationalists.^[8] The latter assertion is especially rooted in Catalan nationalism.^{[citation needed]} In the aforementioned territories (often designated Països Catalans, "Catalan Countries", by Catalan nationalists). This extended concept is unpopular and eventually brings conflict, most of all in the Valencian Community where it is a great issue involving discrimination of the language and mediatic manipulation.

Historical background[link]

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The earliest reference to Catalans (Catalanenses), treated as an ethnic group, is found in the Latin Liber maiolichinus, an Italian epic poem of c.1120. This also contains the earliest reference to Catalonia (Catalania) as the name for their homeland.^[9]

The area that now is known primarily as Catalonia, was invaded in 1500 BCE by Proto-Celtic Urnfield people who brought the rite of burning the dead. These Indo-European people were absorbed by the Iberians beginning in 600 BCE in a process that would not complete until the fourth century BCE. These groups came under the rule of various invading groups starting with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, who set up colonies along the coast, including Barcino (present-day Barcelona) itself. Following the Punic Wars, the Romans replaced the Carthaginians as the dominant power in Catalonia by 206 BCE. Rome established Latin as the official language and imparted a distinctly Roman culture upon the local population, which merged with Roman colonists from the Italian peninsula. An early precursor to the Catalan language began to develop from a local form of popular Latin before and during the collapse of the Roman Empire. Various Germanic tribes arrived following nearly six centuries of Roman rule, which had completely transformed the area into the Roman province of Tarraconensis. The Visigoths established themselves in the fifth century and would rule the area until 718 when Muslim Arabs and Berbers conquered the region and held it for close to a century. The Franks held back small Muslim raiding parties, which had penetrated virtually unchallenged as far as central France; Frankish suzerainty extended over much of present-day Catalonia. Larger wars with the Muslims began with the Spanish March which led to the beginnings of the reconquista (reconquest) by Catalonian forces over most of Catalonia by the year 801. It was during this period that a Catalan national identity fully emerged, as Barcelona became an important center for Christian forces in the Iberian peninsula.

Catalonia emerged from the conflicts in Muslim Spain as a regional power, as Christian rulers entrenched themselves in the region during the Carolingian period. Rulers such as Wilfred the Hairy became masters of a larger territory encompassing Catalonia. The Crown of Aragon included Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands. The marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and the conquest of the last Muslim kingdom of Granada in 1492 tied Catalonia politically to the fate of the new Spanish kingdom, while a regional culture continued to survive and thrive.

Some sporadic regional unrest led to conflicts such as the Revolt of the Germanies in Valencia and Majorca, and the 1640 revolt in Catalonia known as the Reapers' War. This latter conflict embroiled Spain in a larger war with France as many Catalan nobles allied themselves with Louis XIII. The war continued until 1659 and ended with the Peace of the Pyrenees, which effectively partitioned Catalonia as the northern strip of the March came under French rule, while the rest remained under Spanish hegemony. The Catalan government took sides with the Habsburg pretender against the Bourbon one during the War of the Spanish Succession that started in 1705 and ended in 1714. The Catalan failure to defend the perpetuation of Habsburg dynasty in Spain culminated in the surrender of Barcelona on September 11, 1714, which came to be commemorated as Catalonia's national day.

During the Napoleonic Wars, much of Catalonia was seized by French forces by 1808, as France ruled the entire region briefly until Napoleon's surrender to Allied Armies. In France, strong assimilationist policies integrated many Catalans into French society, while in Spain a Catalan identity was increasingly suppressed in favor of a national identity. The Catalans regained autonomy during the Spanish Second Republic from 1932 until Francisco Franco's nationalist forces retook Catalonia by 1939. It was not until 1975 and the death of Franco that the Catalans began to regain their right to cultural expression, which was restarted by the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Since this period, a balance between a sense of local identity versus the broader Spanish one has emerged as the dominant political force in Catalonia. The former tends to advocate for even greater autonomy and independence; the latter tends to argue for maintaining the status quo. As a result, there tends to be much fluctuation depending on regional and national politics during a given election cycle. Given the stronger centralist tendencies in France, however, French Catalans display a much less dynamic sense of uniqueness, having been integrated more consistently into the unitary French national identity.

Geography[link]

The vast majority of Catalans reside in the autonomous community of Catalonia, within Spain. At least 100,000 Catalan speakers live in the pays catalan in France. An indeterminate number of Catalans emigrated to other countries during the Spanish colonial period and in the years following the Spanish Civil War.

Culture and society[link]

Described by author Walter Starkie in The Road to Santiago as a subtle people, he sums up their national character with a local term seny meaning "common sense" or a pragmatic attitude toward life. The masia or mas is a defining characteristic of the Catalonian countryside and includes a large house, land, cattle, and an extended family, but this tradition is in decline as the nuclear family has largely replaced the extended family, as in the rest of western Europe. Catalans in Spain are recognised as a "nationality" and enjoy a high degree of political autonomy, leading to reinforcement of a Catalan identity.

Language[link]

The Catalan language is a Romance language of the Gallo-Iberian group. It is the language closest to Occitan, as well as sharing many features with other Western Romance languages such as Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Aragonese. There are a number of linguistic varieties that are considered dialects of Catalan; among them, the dialect group with the most speakers, Central Catalan.

The number of Catalan speakers is more than 7 million, but very few Catalan monoglots exist; basically, virtually all of the Catalan speakers in Spain are bilingual speakers of Catalan and Spanish, with a sizeable population of Spanish-only speakers of immigrant origin (typically born outside Catalonia or with both parents born outside Catalonia) existing in the major Catalan urban areas as well. In the Roussillon, nowadays only a minority of the French Catalans do speak Catalan, with French being the majority language for the inhabitants after a continued process of language shift.

The inhabitants of the Aran valley count Aranese –an Occitan dialect– rather than Catalan as their own language. These Catalans are also bilingual in Spanish.

In September 2005, the .cat TLD, the first Internet language-based top-level domain, was approved for all web pages intending to serve the needs of the Catalan linguistic and cultural community on the Internet. This community is made up of those who use the Catalan language for their online communications or promote the different aspects of Catalan culture online.

Traditional clothes[link]

The traditional clothes (now, practically only used in folkloric celebrations) included the barretina (a sort of woollen, long cap usually red or purple color) and the faixa (a sort of wide belt) among men, and ret (a fine net bag to contain hair) among women. The traditional footwear was the espardenya or espadrille.

Cuisine[link]

Traditional diet[link]

The Catalan diet is part of the Mediterranean diet and includes the use of olive oil. Catalan people like to eat veal (vedella) and lamb (xai).

There are three main daily meals:

• In the morning: a very light breakfast, consisting of fruit or fruit juice, milk, coffee, or pa amb tomàquet "bread with tomato". Catalans tend to divide their breakfast into two parts: one early in the morning before going to work or study (first breakfast), and the other one between 10:00 and 12:00 (second breakfast)
• In the afternoon (roughly from 13:00 to 14:30): the main meal of the day, usually comprising three dishes. The first consists of pasta or vegetables, the second of meat or fish, and the third of fruit or yogurt
• In the evening (roughly from 20:00 to 22:30): more food than in the morning, but less than at lunch; very often only a single main dish and fruit; it is common to drink moderate quantities of wine.

In Catalan gastronomy, embotits (a wide variety of Catalan sausages and cold meats) are very important; these are pork sausages such as botifarra or fuet. In the past, bread (similar to French bread) figured heavily in the Catalan diet; now it is used mainly in the morning (second breakfast, especially among young students and some workers) and supplements the noon meal, at home and in restaurants. Bread is still popular among Catalans; some Catalan fast-food restaurants don't serve hamburgers, but offer a wide variety of sandwiches.

In the past, the poor ate soup every day and rice on Thursday and Sunday.

The discipline of abstinence, not eating meat during Lent, once was very strong, but practically disappeared in the twentieth century.

Spicy food is rare in the Catalan diet, but there are quite garlicky sauces such as allioli or romesco.

Traditional dishes[link]

One type of Catalan dish is escudella, a soup which contains chick peas, potatoes, and vegetables such as green cabbage, celery, carrots, turnips, and meats such as botifarra (a Catalan sausage), pork feet, salted ham, chicken, and veal. In Northern Catalonia, it is sometimes called ollada.

Other Catalan dishes are calçots (similar to leeks and often eaten with a romesco sauce) and escalivada.

Music[link]

Catalan music has one of the oldest documented musical traditions in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Religion[link]

The majority of Catalans are of the Roman Catholic tradition.

Social conditions[link]

Catalonia is one of the richest and most well developed regions in Southern Europe.^[10] Barcelona is among the most industrialized metropolises and is both a regional capital and a magnet for various migrants from other regions in Spain, as well as from foreign countries.^{[citation needed]}

Identity and nationalism[link]

Due to the continued identification with a distinct identity, many Catalans support Catalan nationalism or Catalan independentism in Spain. This is only seen to a much lesser extent in France.

Nonetheless, there are many Catalans for whom the Catalan identity is not viewed as necessarily being mutually-exclusive with the Spanish one. In contrast, the situation in France has been sharply different as French policies have completed a more thorough assimilation of the French Catalans into the French Republic.^{[citation needed]}

Famous Catalans[link]

See also[link]

	Spain portal
	France portal

• Catalonia
• History of Catalonia
• Catalan myths and legends
• Nationalities of Spain
• Òmnium Cultural
• Spanish people

References[link]

• Balcells, Albert et al. Catalan Nationalism : Past and Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 1995).
• Collier, Basil. Catalan France (J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1939).
• Conversi, Daniele. The Basques, the Catalans and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilization (University of Nevada Press, 1997). ISBN 1-85065-268-6.
• Guibernau, Montserrat. Catalan Nationalism: Francoism, Transition and Democracy (Routledge, 2004).
• Hargreaves, John. Freedom for Catalonia?: Catalan Nationalism, Spanish Identity and the Barcelona Olympic Games (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
• Simonis, Damien. Lonely Planet Catalunya & the Costa Brava (Lonely Planet Publications, 2003).
• Starkie, Walter. The Road to Santiago (John Murray, 2003).
• Michelin THE GREEN GUIDE France (Michelin Travel Publications, 2000).

Notes[link]

Online references[link]

• US Library of Congress Country Studies: The Catalans
• Catalans, World Culture Encyclopedia
• Ethnologue for Catalan language
• Lletra. Catalan Literature Online
• Catalans in France
• Catalan Resources
• Catalan Identity
• Museum of the History of Catalonia
• Catalanism
• Catalan Dancing
• The Spirit of Catalonia. 1946 book by Oxford Professor Dr. Josep Trueta
• Catalan Festivals and Traditions

Dexter Gordon
In concert with Dizzy Gillespie, Toronto August 19, 1978 Photo: Jean-Luc Ourlin
Background information
Also known as	Long Tall Dexter, Dexter "The Sound" Gordon
Born	(1923-02-27)February 27, 1923 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	April 25, 1990(1990-04-25) (aged 67) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres	Swing, bop, hard bop
Occupations	Composer, bandleader, musician, actor
Instruments	Tenor saxophone
Years active	1940–1986
Labels	Blue Note, Savoy, Columbia
Associated acts	Dizzy Gillespie, Gene Ammons, Wardell Gray, Lionel Hampton, Billy Eckstine
Website	www.dextergordon.com

Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and an Academy Award-nominated actor (Round Midnight, Warner Bros, 1986). He is regarded as one of the first and most important musicians to adapt the bebop musical language of people like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bud Powell to the tenor saxophone. His studio and live performance career were both extensive and multifaceted, spanning over 50 years in recorded jazz history.

Gordon's height was 6 feet 6 inches (198 cm), and so consequently he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" and "Sophisticated Giant." He played a Conn 10M 'Ladyface' tenor ^[1] until it was stolen in a Paris airport in 1961. He then switched over to a Selmer Mark VI. His saxophone was fitted with an Otto Link metal mouthpiece, which can be seen in various photos. Gordon died on April 25, 1990 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Gordon was born and grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a doctor who counted Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton among his patients. He played clarinet from the age of 13, before switching to saxophone (initially alto, then tenor) at 15. While still at school, he was playing in bands with such contemporaries as Chico Hamilton and Buddy Collette.^[2]

Between 1940 and 1943, Gordon was a member of Lionel Hampton's band, playing in a saxophone section alongside Illinois Jacquet and Marshall Royal. In 1943 he made his first recordings under his own name, alongside Nat Cole and Harry Edison. During 1943-44 he featured in the Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson bands, before joining Billy Eckstine.

By 1945, Gordon had left the Eckstine band and was resident in New York, where he was performing and recording with Charlie Parker, as well as recording under his own name. Gordon was a virtuoso particularly famous for his titanic saxophone duels with fellow tenorman Wardell Gray, that were a popular live attraction and that were documented in several albums between 1947 and 1952.

Many would characterize Gordon's sound as being 'large' and spacious and his tendency to play behind the beat is discernible. One of his major influences was Lester Young. Gordon, in turn, was an early influence on John Coltrane during the 1940s and 1950s. Coltrane's playing, however, during his early period from the mid to late '50s or early '60s influenced Gordon's playing from then onward. Similarities in their styles include their clear, strong, metallic tones, their tendencies to bend up to high notes, and their abilities to single-tongue and still swing. One of Gordon's idiosyncrasies was to recite the lyrics of each ballad before playing it.

Blue Note recordings[link]

Dexter Gordon in Amsterdam (1980)

Gordon was a saxophonist for the L.A. production of the Jack Gelber play The Connection in 1960, replacing Jackie McLean who performed and recorded the Freddie Redd score in New York City. By this time he had begun recording for Blue Note Records a collaboration that was to produce some of his most highly-regarded work on the albums Doin' Alright, Dexter Calling..., Go, and A Swingin' Affair. The first two, his Blue Note debuts, were recorded over three days in May 1961 with Freddie Hubbard, Horace Parlan and others. The last two were recorded in August 1962 just before Gordon left for his extended stay in Europe. On these albums the rhythm section was Blue Note staples Sonny Clark, Butch Warren and Billy Higgins.

Years in Europe[link]

After that, he spent 15 years in Europe, mostly in Paris and Copenhagen, where he played regularly with fellow expatriate jazzmen such as Bud Powell, Ben Webster, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Kenny Drew, Horace Parlan and Billy Higgins. Gordon also visited the States occasionally for further recording dates with Blue Note Records. From this period Our Man in Paris, One Flight Up, and Gettin' Around are regarded as among his finest sessions. Our Man in Paris was a Blue Note session recorded in Paris, France in 1963 with a quartet including pianist Bud Powell, drummer Kenny Clarke, and French bassist Pierre Michelot. One Flight Up features an extended solo by Gordon on the track "Tanya" recorded in Paris in 1964 with trumpeter Donald Byrd, while Gettin' Around was recorded during a visit back to the US in May 1965, as was the unreleased album Clubhouse.

Less well-known, but of similar quality, are the albums he recorded during the same period for the Danish label SteepleChase (Something Different99, Bouncin' With Dex, and a few dozen others). They feature American sidemen but also such Europeans as Spanish pianist Tete Montoliu and Danish bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen.

Gordon found Europe in the 1960s a much easier place to live, saying that he experienced less racism and greater respect for jazz musicians. Furthermore in America he had experienced drug addiction and imprisonment (twice), and must have found the change of location helpful. While in Copenhagen, Dexter Gordon and Kenny Drew's trio appeared onscreen in Ole Ege's theatrically released hardcore pornographic film Pornografi (1971), for which they composed and performed the score.^[3]

From 1965-1973 he switched from Blue Note to Prestige Records but stayed very much on the hard-bop track; while the rest of the jazz-world was getting funky, Gordon was making classic bop albums like 1972's Tangerine with Thad Jones, Freddie Hubbard, and Hank Jones. Some of the Prestige albums were recorded during visits back to North America while he was still living in Europe. Others were made in Europe, including live sets from the Montreux Jazz Festival. The American recordings included The Chase, a tenor battle with Gene Ammons cut in Chicago in 1970.

Homecoming[link]

at The Village Vanguard in 1977

Gordon finally returned to the United States for good in 1976. He appeared at the Village Vanguard, NY, for a gig that was dubbed as his 'homecoming;' and was recorded and released under that title. He noted "There was so much love and elation; sometimes it was a little eerie at the Vanguard. After the last set they'd turn on the lights and nobody would move"^{[citation needed]}.

After this appearance, Gordon recorded several more albums that proved he was as good if not better than before his years in Europe, and he finally gained appreciation as one of the great jazz tenors. The increased attention that he received because of Columbia Records promotions has been seen as a turning point in jazz because they focused on acoustic jazz rather than the commercial cross-over styles which had been heavily promoted during the first part of the 1970s.

Gordon made several notable film appearances. The first occurred, oddly enough, while he was in prison for possession of heroin. He portrayed an inmate playing in the prison band in Unchained, though the soundtrack was later overdubbed. In 1986, Gordon starred in the movie Round Midnight as 'Dale Turner', an expatriate jazz musician much like himself; the role might even be a thinly veiled biography of him, though Lester Young and Bud Powell were its main inspirations. Gordon received a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal. In addition, he had a non-speaking role in the film Awakenings, which was released after his death. Between these two roles, Gordon made a guest appearance on the Michael Mann series Crime Story.

Gordon died of kidney failure in Philadelphia, PA on April 25, 1990, at age 67. He was voted musician of the year by Down Beat magazine in 1978 and 1980, and in the latter year was inducted into Down Beat's Jazz Hall of Fame.

Family[link]

Gordon's maternal grandfather was Captain Edward L. Baker, one of the five Medal of Honor winners (9th Cav.) in the Spanish-American War and served in the 9th and 10th Cavalries - in the group known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

Gordon's father, Dr. Frank Gordon, M.D., was one of the first prominent African-American physicians and a graduate of Howard University.

Dexter Gordon had a total of six children, from the oldest to the youngest: Robin Gordon (Los Angeles, CA), James Canales Gordon (Oakland, CA), Deidre (Dee Dee) Gordon (Los Angeles, CA), Mikael Gordon-Solfors (Stockholm, Sweden), Morten Gordon (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Benjamin Dexter Gordon (Copenhagen, Denmark), and five grandchildren, Raina Moore (Brooklyn, NY), Jared Johnson (Los Angeles, CA), and Matthew Johnson (Los Angeles, CA) Maya Canales (Oakland, CA), Jared Canales (Oakland, CA)

When he lived in Denmark, he became friends with the family of the future Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, and subsequently became Lars' godfather.^[4]

Gordon is also survived by his widow and former manager-producer Maxine Gordon.

Discography[link]

• Dexter Rides Again (1945)
• The Hunt w Wardell Gray (1947)
• The Chase w Wardell Gray (1947)
• The Duel w Teddy Edwards (1947)
• Daddy Plays the Horn (1955)
• Dexter Blows Hot and Cool (1955)
• The Resurgence of Dexter Gordon (Riverside, 1960)
• Doin' Allright (1961), Blue Note
• Dexter Calling... (1961), Blue Note
• Go! (1962), Blue Note
• A Swingin' Affair (1962), Blue Note
• Our Man in Paris (Paris 1963), Blue Note - w Bud Powell
• One Flight Up (Paris, 1964) - Blue Note
• King Neptune (1964)
• Clubhouse (1965)
• Gettin' Around (New York, 1965)
• The Squirrel: Live at Montmartre (1967)
• Take The "A" Train (1967)
• Tower of Power (1969) - w James Moody
• More Power (1969)
• The Panther (1970) w Tommy Flanagan and Alan Dawson. Prestige Records
• The Chase (1970) w Gene Ammons Prestige
• The Jumpin' Blues (1970) w Wynton Kelly
• Tangerine (1972) hard bop with Freddie Hubbard and others - Prestige
• "Ca'Purange" (1972) with Thad Jones, Hank Jones, Stanley Clarke and Louis Hayes
• "Generation" (1972) with Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton and others - Prestige
• The Apartment (1974) - SteepleChase
• Something Different (1975), SteepleChase
• Bouncin' with Dex (1975), SteepleChase
• Homecoming: Live at the Village Vanguard (1976)
• True Blue w/ Al Cohn (1976; Xanadu Records)
• Silver Blue w/ Al Cohn (1976; Xanadu Records)
• Biting The Apple (1976) - SteepleChase
• Sophisticated Giant (1977) with 11-piece big-band including Woody Shaw, Slide Hampton, Bobby Hutcherson - Columbia Records
• Manhattan Symphonie (1978), Columbia Records—with Rufus Reid - bass, Eddie Gladden - percussion, and George Cables - keyboard
• Gotham City (1980), Columbia Records
• American Classic [featuring: Grover Washington Jr. and Shirley Scott] (1982) Elektra Entertainment
• Round Midnight (1986), Columbia Records
• The Other Side of Round Midnight (1986) Blue Note Records
• Live at Carnegie Hall (1998), Columbia Records – Recorded in 1978
• The Rainbow People with Benny Bailey (2002), Steeplechase Records - Released in 2002

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dexter Gordon

• Official website
• Sophisticated Giant: The Dexter Gordon Discography
• Dexter Gordon at Allmusic
• Dexter Gordon at the Internet Movie Database
• Dexter Gordon Multimedia Directory
• Dexter Gordon: 12 Essential Tracks by Eric Novod (www.jazz.com)
• Dexter Gordon at the Notable Names Database
• "Dexter Gordon". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6946855. Retrieved August 30, 2010. 

Tete Montoliu (28 March 1933 – 24 August 1997) was a jazz pianist from Catalonia, Spain. His real name was Vicenç Montoliu i Massana.

Biography[link]

Tete Montoliu & vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz, CA 5/14/1984 (Photo: Brian McMillen)

He was born blind, in the Eixample district of Barcelona, and died in the same city. He was the only son of Vicenç Montoliu (a professional musician) and Àngela Massana, a jazz enthusiast, who encouraged her son to study piano. Montoliu's first experimenting with the piano took place under the tuition of Enric Mas at the private school for blind children that he attended from 1939–1944. In 1944, Montoliu's mother arranged for Petri Palou to provide him with formal piano lessons.

From 1946 to 1953 Montoliu studied music at the Conservatori Superior de Música de Barcelona where he also met jazz musicians, and became familiar with the idiom in jam sessions. During the early stages of his career, Montoliu was particularly influenced by the music of the American jazz pianist Art Tatum, although he soon developed a distinctive style, characterised by a profound musical sensitivity and extraordinary technical skill. Montoliu began playing professionally at pubs in Barcelona, where he was noticed by Lionel Hampton on 13 March 1956. Montoliu toured with Hampton through Spain and France and recorded Jazz flamenco, setting off a prolific international career.

In the 1960s, Montoliu played in various concerts at New York and established collaborations with Elvin Jones and Richard Davis. During the 1970s, he travelled extensively throughout Europe, consolidating his reputation as a main referent in the Hard Bop movement. During the 1980s, he played in numerous concerts, collaborating with prominent jazz players such as Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, George Coleman, Joe Henderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Hank Jones, Roy Hargrove, Jerry Tilitz and Jesse Davis, among others.

In 1996, shortly before his death, Spain paid public tribute to Tete Montoliu for his outstanding fifty-year career in jazz.

External links[link]

• Tete Montoliu Discography at www.JazzDiscography.com

Bibliography[link]

• Jurado, Miquel: "Tete, casi autobiografía". Fundación Autor, Madrid (Spain) 2005

• Jakupi, Gani : "Montoliu plays Tete" (musical selection by Miquel Jurado). Discmendi, Barcelona (Spain) 2006