A Brief History of Black British Jazz - by Luca

About Luca

Luca was a digital skills volunteer in TURNING POINT (London) heritage programme’s ‘digital skills and heritage research workshop’.

Luca is a recent MSc Postcolonial Studies graduate from SOAS, a historian and musician. Of mixed Ghanaian heritage with family ties to the independence struggle, his interests lie in Black history, oral tradition, and inclusive pedagogy. Influenced by Black British scholars such as David Olusoga and Paul Gilroy, he is committed to community-based education and volunteering as a means of preserving and imparting Black historical traditions.

Summary

Luca’s work discusses early twentieth-century Black British jazz, reviewing key musicians and venues within the racial violence, migration, and institutional discrimination that followed the First World War. With insights on Ken “Snakehips” Johnson, Leslie “Hutch” Hutchinson, Joe Deniz, Lauderic Caton, and Rudolph Dunbar, Luca speaks on their musical innovation and transatlantic influences. This work also highlights how these venues functioned as sites of racial solidarity, queer expression, and progressive political organising, demonstrating how Black musicians not only transformed Britain’s popular music culture but also helped shape its social and cultural life.

A Brief History of British Jazz

Britain has an incredibly rich history of Black musicians and the contributions of those players, whilst having been thoroughly documented through jazz periodicals, BBC archive footage and otherwise, has undoubtedly been understated. Considering the significance of their contributions to not only Black Atlantic diasporic musical performance, but also the progression of popular musical production in general, it is necessary to contextualise within history their impact as well as highlight the specific players. Without these players, the current music landscape would be vastly different. It is also important to note that the entire scene within which these musicians revolved around also provided a source of racial solidarity, queer solidarity and incredibly progressive political ideas that would inform the landscape of Britain in the decades to come. The intention behind this project is not to be comprehensive but to give a general overview to encourage discussion and further research.

Read/ download Luca’s blog

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