Clifton Worsley (1873 - 1925)

The work of another native of Catalonia, Pere Astort i Ribas, also exhibits an audible proximity to the Anglo-American style. He started out working in a music shop, where customers became aware of both his talent as a pianist and his early compositions. He accepted advice to publish under a pseudonym so as to sell better in America, chose the name Clifton Worsley, and was soon known as the ‘jazz pioneer in Barcelona’. His foxtrot Five O’Clock Tea pays homage to a British custom rather than an American one, while Triste Illusion belongs to a genre he particularly liked, the slow, swaying Boston waltz. (To be more precise, it is a so-called ‘Triple Boston’.) The pieces were published in 1916 and 1917 respectively and are therefore relatively early examples of this music in Southern Europe.