Jazz Crisis
- Place of Publication: Madrid, Spain
- Language: Spanish
- Date of Publication: 1949-1950
- Periodicity: Monthly
- Editor: Antonio Marquerie
- Publishers: Hot Club de Madrid
- Type: Full Text
- Introduction by: Natalia Vilchis
Published in Madrid, Jazz Crisis maintained a monthly schedule from October 1949 through July 1950; RIPM’s collection spans from October 1949 through March 1950 (Vol. 1 nos. 1–6). The journal was directed by Antonio Marqueríe with the collaboration of Alberto Urech and Enrique Sanz de Madrid, and was often described as the house newsletter of the Hot Club de Madrid. The use of the term "crisis" in the title isn't wholly clear, though it may relate to Marquerie's attempt to define a "genuine" jazz.
A typical issue contained eight pages, opening with an editorial on the jazz scene or a piece of timely news, followed by a featured bibliographical article, then a historically or pedagogically oriented essay, and closing with either a record review section or a page on jazz in film.
The magazine originated within the Hot Club de Madrid—also known in some sources as the Club de Música de Jazz—the capital’s principal jazz society of the day. The club used Jazz Crisis to publicize concerts, recordings, and scene news, typically ranging from club announcements to concert and record notes and scene reporting that advocated for “true jazz” in Spain’s fragile postwar community. Contributors included Víctor Mitz, Álvaro Uría, Franco Orgaz, Shelwood Anderson, Carlos Olivier, and Claude Roy.
Its brief life coincided with a cautious thaw in official attitudes toward U.S. popular music after the second world war. From the late 1940s the Franco regime permitted the re-emergence of hot clubs in cities such as Madrid and tolerated jazz-specific publications—an opening into which Jazz Crisis neatly fits.
Antonio Marqueríe, the director, was a pioneering voice in Madrid’s 1940s jazz circles. In 1946 he was already corresponding about the nature of jazz—defending what he regarded as its genuine character—and he soon appeared among the Madrid collaborators in the Spanish jazz press (for example, in Ritmo y Melodía), the same milieu that fed into the Hot Club de Madrid and its bulletin.
Recurring sections of the journal included “Biografía” (profiles of featured jazz figures), “Vida del jazz en todo el mundo” (news from the international scene), “Ediciones españolas” (commentary on records issued in Spain), “Los Discos” (record reviews), and “Cine” (jazz on recent film releases).
Among notable articles by Marqueríe were “Comprensión del Bebop” (a historical–pedagogical synthesis of the style’s origins and leading figures), “Pequeña historia del jazz” (on beginnings, early centers, and influences), and “Jazz y Flamenco” (on convergences between the two traditions in Spain).