Beyond Sketches of Spain: Tete Montoliu and the Construction of Iberian Jazz, by Benjamin Fraser (OUP)

[EKE BBB]

This Tete Montoliu bio by Benjamin Fraser (any hint on his previous ouvre?) was published in November. I ordered it through Amazon.es back then, and will reportedly receive it next week.

https://academic.oup.com/book/44545

"Abstract:
No musician did more to shape Iberian jazz than pianist Vicenç Montoliu i Massana (1933–1997), who was known simply as “Tete.” Reflecting his fascination with the modernist aesthetics of mid-century jazz, Tete Montoliu was known for his quick fingering, his carefully crafted mix of lyricism and dissonance, his penchant for discordant crashes, and his development of highly original compositions. He boasted some 100 recordings spanning Denmark, Germany, Holland, Spain, and the United States, and performed with the most notable jazz luminaries, including Lionel Hampton, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Dexter Gordon, and Archie Shepp. Acknowledging and drawing musical inspiration from the Black American jazz form, Tete fashioned an adjacent critical space shaped by his experiences as a Catalan and a person with congenital visual impairment living under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Beyond Sketches of Spain: Tete Montoliu and the Construction of Iberian Jazz explores the artist’s life, musical production, and international reception within a cultural studies framework. This book moves beyond mere sketches of Spanish nationhood to challenge conventional scholarly narratives and recover links between the United States, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and Europe in the investigation of an impressive and often overlooked transnational modern jazz legacy. Eschewing Theodore Adorno’s denigration of Black American jazz, a more compelling model is found in Fumi Okiji’s notion of gathering in difference. In this work, Benjamin Fraser deftly mixes musical biography with urban history, spatial theory, and disability studies, fashioning a highly readable text for readers from all disciplines.

Contents: 
Front Matter
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Selected Tete Montoliu Vinyl Discography
Note on Theodor W. Adorno and Jazz Criticism
Introduction
1 Sketches of Flamenco
2 The Urban Soundscapes of Modern Jazz
3 Performing Catalanism
4 Blues, Braille, and the Metanarrative of Blindness

End Matter
Epilogue: The Jazz Artist in Transnational Popular Culture
ExpandNotes
References
Discography and Further Listening*
Index"

Looking at the contents, I remain a bit skeptical. It seems to be an amalgam of different and "external" approaches to Tete Montoliu (flamenco-jazz (!), blindness, catalanism, jazz in Franco's Spain). On top of that, no one in the Tete Montoliu "circles" that I am in touch with, was aware that this bio was in the works. Still, I will have to wait until I receive it and read it through to get a substantiated opinion. 

Edited January 6, 2023 by EKE BBB

[Big Beat Steve]

I wonder how Adorno is supposed to advance the biography and understanding of a specific MUSICIAN? In a way that could not be stuffed about just as well into a biography of many other musicians from roughly that time frame.

Edited January 12, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[EKE BBB]

As mentioned in my first post, this books appears to be an 'agenda' of topics to be dealt with. Tete Montoliu life&music seems to be just either an excuse or a channel. Reading the Acknowledgement pages, this is confirmed... at least to some extent.

In any case, I have planned to start reading this bio this next weekend. Let the fun begin!  

[EKE BBB]

Yet another book on Tete Montoliu is due out today:

Pere Pons - " 'Round About Tete. Una Mirada Coral A La Vida Y Obra De Tete Montoliu" (Libros del Kultrum), a compilation of articles, letters and interviews with producers, musicians and any sort of people who dealt with Tete. Available in Spanish and Catalan.

https://www.casadellibro.com/libro-round-about-tete/9788418404399/14200805

[Big Beat Steve]

Just out of curiosity: So what WAS your impression of the earlier Montoliu bio that you wrote about last January?

[EKE BBB]

18 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Just out of curiosity: So what WAS your impression of the earlier Montoliu bio that you wrote about last January?

I subscribe Jorge García's review for El Temp De Les Arts (in Valencian):

https://tempsarts.cat/musica/jazz/tete-montoliu-explicat-als-intellectuals-nord-americans/

Disappointing is an euphemism.  

[Big Beat Steve]

Thanks ...
Luckily my reading knowledge of Spanish (and a wee bit of Catalan) is good enough to figure out at least the essence of what he wrote in Valencian (though it did require a lot of concentration ).

Writing about something that you THINK you are intimately familiar with (Jazz which orignated in the USA) without having the feel for national or regional specificities (such as Spain in this case) is a VERY dangerous thing indeed! Particularly if you have an agenda (beyond the core subject of the biography) to maintain and to make the narrative fit your agenda.
So this review does not come as a huge surprise and makes this book another one of those "ivory tower efforts".

Edited September 18, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[EKE BBB]

19 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

So this review does not come as a huge surprise and makes this book another one of those "ivory tower efforts".

Absolutely.

[EKE BBB]

On 9/18/2023 at 9:16 AM, EKE BBB said:

Yet another book on Tete Montoliu is due out today:

Pere Pons - " 'Round About Tete. Una Mirada Coral A La Vida Y Obra De Tete Montoliu" (Libros del Kultrum), a compilation of articles, letters and interviews with producers, musicians and any sort of people who dealt with Tete. Available in Spanish and Catalan.

https://www.casadellibro.com/libro-round-about-tete/9788418404399/14200805

This book is getting huge promotion efforts, with presentations all over the Spanish geography, which are typically accompanied by a concert from a varying group led by Ignasi Terraza (natural inheritor of Tete Montoliu's piano tradition in Spain) and Horacio Fumero (longtime bassist in Tete's trio). 

My viewpoint, in a nutshell: it IS a nice book, though NOT a great book (in terms of documentation, original research and comprehensiveness).

[Gheorghe]

Would be interesting to read, since I always have liked his many many appearances on Steeplechases, mostly with Dex, but also fantastic with Kenny Dorham and others. I also have a record under his own name where he plays "Giant Steps" and "Theme for Ernie" if I remember right. 

Once around 1980 he "rescued" a Joe Henderson concert as was told to me. I had a flu and couldn´t be there, but my friends had told me that the rhythm section b and drums just didn´t make fire and it was a drag until Tete took a solo, made a sign to the bassist and drummer to lay out and started really to groove. He went right in with a left hand walking bass, obviously to show them kids how to groove, and he got the most applause for that, the audience went nuts and was so glad that he showed ´em what is stuff.....

I have heard, that Tete didn´t live too long, I mean he would be around 90 years now and Hank Jones still performed at that age, as did Marshall Evans and others....
What was the cause of his death ?