Manifesto against the “Concerts of the Century”. Or how Dizzy Gillespie (but not only him) ended the dreams of a young jazz fan while Franco was living his last hours in El Pardo

Abstract

The celebration in Madrid and Barcelona of a great show in tribute to Charlie Parker filled with a number of stars of the genre, rise to a necessary refl ection on the nature of jazz, the relationship of the artist with the listener and the contribution of this music to the emergence of an alternative cultural identity during the last years of Franco’s regime. The text reconstructs the 4 and a half hour show step by step from the notes taken by the author at the moment. This is intended to value testimony as a source of relevant information that complements the academic methodology.