Encounters with Jazz on Television in Cold War Era Portugal: 1954–1974 explores the relationship between jazz and television by investigating the experiences of performers and producers in one of the last European colonial states (Portugal) during a period of political and social repression and global isolation. This new model of systemic analysis reveals a paradoxical interrelationship between state-controlled television and international media industries, highlighting the space where these two forces collide and locating television jazz production within an important cultural milieu with a lasting impact on Portuguese society.

From the days of the first feasibility studies for a proposed public television service in 1954, to the military coup that overthrew the far-right Estado Novo regime in 1974, this book maps the institutionalization of jazz in Portugal as a social and musical practice, one that played a significant role in fostering cultural diversity. It looks at the musicians, repertoires, production processes, broadcasts, policies and strategies that fuelled the launch of Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP) and the rise of television, an indispensable new medium that granted Portuguese people access to the wider world – a world curated by public television producers with individual cultural, political and aesthetic attitudes to influence the dissemination of jazz.

In exploring the connections between these national and international jazz scenes, Encounters with Jazz on Television in Cold War Era Portugal: 1954–1974 addresses opportunities for in-depth comparison of the Portuguese experience with that of other countries, situating Cold War era Portuguese television jazz broadcasting as part of a bigger, still unwritten story.