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A short history of Irish Jazz

03 July 2023

In the first of a new series of monthly blog posts drawing on the riches of the Dictionary of Irish Biography, Liz Evers charts the arrival of jazz in the 1910s and the evolution of the Irish jazz scene over the past century – paying tribute to some of the stars of the Irish scene who gained international recognition for their talents.

During an interview with the Irish Times in August 1979, Louis Stewart declared that ‘The best thing you can do for jazz in Ireland is to make it illegal’. Stewart, considered Ireland’s greatest jazz guitarist, was lamenting the limitations of a jazz scene during what was arguably still its heyday, or at least the tail end of it. Read the blog on the DIB website.

Dictionary of Irish Biography

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