When Jazz Came to Europe

The British Invasion. Europop. Bubblegum. The West Coast Sound. In the age before instant gratification, musical trends used to take their time to cross the Atlantic. As teenagers in Liverpool, John Lennon and Paul Macartney relied on American sailors and local music stores to bring them the latest from, say, Big Mama Thornton and Little Richard. Similarly, when Sam Wooding took his eleven piece band and 30 dancing girls by sea and rail to Berlin in 1925, they were lionized. Not least because, unlike in Paris, Black faces were a complete rarity. Much more than that, as their fame spread around the continent so did the American style of syncopated jazz they brought with them. Tony Staveacre and I are happy to bring you the story of When Jazz Came To Europe.