ABSTRACT
The reception and the practice of jazz in Portugal after the Second World War have, until recently, been understood in academic and jazz promoters’ discourses as a cultural form that was seemingly employed in strategies of political resistance to the dictatorship of Estado Novo (New State) (1933-1974). Although this argument must be taken into account, it frequently overshadows other political and social uses of jazz during the Portuguese dictatorship from the 1930s to the mid-1950s. This chapter brings into play the contradictory attitudes of the regime towards jazz, modern dances and American popular music in general. Although these expressive forms were never totally abandoned during the dictatorship, the regime’s moral panic during the 1930s, due to a conservative stance and the growing influence of Roman Catholicism, gave way to acceptance, with certain reservations, that was also related to the regime’s strategic shift towards the Allies during the second half of the Second World War. The chapter will highlight the way jazz, particularly after the Portuguese participation in the Marshall Plan in 1950, was part of the American popular-culture offensive in Portuguese society. It will also shed light on the role of jazz promoter Luís Villas-Boas in that process and in the dissemination of jazz in Portugal as a serious art music dissociated from commercial dance music products. Through research in archives and jazz collections, and by conducting ethnographic interviews with older-generation jazz promoters, professionals and amateurs, this chapter explores some lesser-known processes in the history of jazz in Portugal.
