The Birth of Porto’s Jazz Scene: Culture, Spaces, and Networks

ABSTRACT In recent years, a growing amount of attention has been paid to the jazz diaspora within specific historical, social, and political contexts. Nevertheless, activities that took place outside of capital cities are often ignored, despite many local scenes within their own larger diasporic environment playing a significant role in the development of jazz – and Portugal is a case in point. In Porto, an urban center in northern Portugal, in the late 1950s, in the context of the New State regime under Dr. Oliveira Salazar, a group of jazz enthusiasts created a space in which this music could be listened to, discussed, and celebrated. This space could be described as a kind of “DIY” jazz club and was notable for disseminating the genre across the region. However, as with so many diasporic locations, Portugal’s historical accounts of its jazz heritage, both local and national, largely fail to acknowledge activity outside the nation’s capital. This essay examines the inception of the Porto jazz scene in the post-World War II period and focuses on the connections between the local, the national, and the global.