The Development of the Austrian Jazz Scene and Its Identity 1960-1980

Abstract

In Austria, a country steeped in music history and famous for composers such as Mozart, Haydn, and Bruckner, jazz was quick to earn a place in the cultural landscape. After World War II, important jazz scenes rapidly evolved in Vienna and Graz and, particularly from the 1960s onwards, grew into a strong and independent national jazz scene. Its musicians and ensembles focussed on developing their own characteristics and styles. This article examines primary aspects of the jazz scene during these formative years, such as the series of amateur jazz festivals held in the 1960s, Friedrich Gulda's commitment to jazz, Graz as a jazz centre and the institutionalisation of jazz at the Academy of Music in Graz in 1965, the role of the Austrian broadcasting network (ORF), and the impact of the Vienna Art Orchestra. In addition to archival records and musicological and journalistic texts, interviews conducted with members of different parts of the jazz scene offer important insights into the development of jazz during this period (with musicians, ensembles, educators and researchers, festival and venue organisers, agencies and policy makers, members of the media). This article offers an overview of pertinent aspects of the Austrian jazz scene between 1960 and 1980, revealing opinions about the influence of these aspects on the formation of Austrian jazz identity.