13 Facts About British jazz

British jazz is a form of music derived from American jazz.

Significant pre-war British jazz and swing artists include Coleridge Goode and Ken "Snakehips" Johnson a leading London figure who was killed by a bomb at the Cafe de Paris, London, in March 1941 during the Blitz, and trumpeter, Leslie Thompson.

In London, there were many Black British jazz musicians playing in popular nightclubs around Albemarle Street in central London.

British jazz-born players too, including George Shearing, active on the London scene since before the war, and Victor Feldman chose to move across the Atlantic to develop their careers.

Several new British jazz clubs were established in London in the 1950s, including the Flamingo Club.

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Domestic musicians' union ban, with the agreement of the Ministry of Labour, was initiated in the mid-thirties on visiting American British jazz musicians, following successful visits from Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington.

The erratic availability of American records meant that, unlike the rest of Europe, British jazz aficionados had become unfamiliar with the most recent jazz developments in the music's country of origin.

British jazz had been toying with some loose free form ideas since the mid-1950s, but finally settled upon his conception in 1959, after a protracted spell in hospital with tuberculosis gave him time to think things over.

British jazz finally settled on a line-up of Keane, Pat Smythe, Coleridge Goode and Phil Seamen.

British jazz's method demanded more complete group improvisation than displayed in Coleman's music, and often featured no particular soloist.

British jazz recorded three albums in this vein: Free Form, Abstract and Movement.

South African and free British jazz influences came together in projects like the Brotherhood of Breath big band, led by McGregor.

Expansion of British jazz was marked by the launch of Jazz FM in 1990 and the opening of The Jazz Cafe, based in Camden Town, London.