Lecture
Alyn Shipton
Wednesday 19.11.2025
Alyn Shipton
European Jazz, Part 1
Wednesday 19.11.2025
How to watch
This lecture starts on 19 November at 5:00pm (UK).
Summary
In his first survey of European jazz, Alyn Shipton looks at developments across the continent up to and including World War II, with early bands from Sweden combining traditional folk ideas with jazz, and the early idea that jazz was comedic. Then he gradually follows the international development of fine music with a distinctive local flavor, from such figures as Spike Hughes, Ray Noble, Django Reinhardt, and Ray Ventura, as well as charting the influence of high-profile Americans who worked with British and Continental musicians, including Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins.
Alyn Shipton
Alyn Shipton has worked in music for many years as a writer, editor, and player. He was the publisher of the New Grove Dictionary series in the 1980s. His own books include numerous biographies, mainly of jazz musicians, including Fats Waller, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Ian Carr, and Cab Calloway. His other books include the award-winning life of singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, and a study of the relationship between visual arts and jazz. His New History of Jazz (2001, revised 2007) won awards on both sides of the Atlantic and is now well established as one of the standard works on the subject. Since 1989 he has presented and produced programs on music and history for BBC Radio. As a double bassist, he has played with many leading British jazz groups, and he currently co-leads the Buck Clayton Legacy Band.