Fred Elizalde

Federico "Fred" Elizalde (December 12, 1907 – January 16, 1979) was a Spanish Filipino classical and jazz pianist, composer, conductor, and bandleader influential in the British dance band era.

Elizalde was born in Manila on December 12, 1907 to José Joaquín Elizalde and Carmen Díaz Moreu. He was a brother of diplomat Joaquin, Angel, and Manuel ("Manolo") Elizalde.

At the age of only seven he entered the Madrid Royal Conservatory, winning the first prize in piano at age 14. He then studied at St. Joseph's College, London and went to study law at Stanford University in the 1920s. His musical interests prevailed and he left the university. He took composition lessons under Ernst Bloch at Stanford, and gave up law temporarily for music, leaving the school in 1926. He then embarked on a career as a jazz bandleader, leading the Stanford University Band at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles while he studied composition. He recorded with the Cinderella Roof Orchestra in 1926, then returned to England, where he entered Cambridge University in the autumn as a law student. This lasted only a year; soon after reaching England, Elizalde formed a new band, the Quinquaginta Band, which became highly successful and influential on the development of British jazz music in the late 1920s.

Elizalde criticized British dance music for its Viennese qualities and sought to bring more American principles of rhythm to the British scene. He recorded with his band in 1927 under several ensemble names for Brunswick and Decca, including the Cambridge Undergraduates. In his run at the Savoy Hotel in London, his band featured many of the best players in early British jazz, including Norman Payne, Jack Jackson, and Harry Hayes, as well as Americans such as Chelsea Quealey, Bobby Davis, Fud Livingston, Adrian Rollini, and Arthur Rollini. In December 1928, he released a short film Christmas Party filmed in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process.

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