Tete Montoliu born 28 March 1933

Vicenç Montoliu i Massana, better known as Tete Montoliu (28 March 1933 – 24 August 1997) was a Spanish jazz pianist from Catalonia, Spain. Born blind, he learnt braille music at age seven. His styles varied from hard bop, through afro-Cuban, world fusion, to post bop. He recorded with Lionel Hampton in 1956 and played with saxophonist Roland Kirk in 1963. He also worked with leading American jazz musicians who toured in, or relocated to Europe including Kenny Dorham, Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster, Lucky Thompson, and Anthony Braxton. Tete Montoliu recorded two albums in the US, and recorded for Enja, SteepleChase Records, and Soul Note in Europe. 

Montoliu was born blind, in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Spain, and died in the same city. He was the only son of Vicenç Montoliu (a professional musician) and Àngela Massana, a jazz enthusiast, who encouraged her son to study piano. Montoliu's earliest piano teaching took place under the tutelage of Enric Mas at the private school for blind children he attended from 1939 to 1944. In 1944, Montoliu's mother arranged for Petri Palou to provide him with formal piano lessons. 

From 1946 to 1953, Montoliu studied music at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona, where he also met jazz musicians and became familiar with the idiom in jam sessions. During the early stages of his career, Montoliu was particularly influenced by the music of U.S. jazz pianist Art Tatum, although he soon developed his own style. (Coincidentally, Tatum was also impaired with extremely limited vision). Montoliu began playing professionally at pubs in Barcelona, where he was noticed by Lionel Hampton on 13 March 1956. Montoliu toured with Hampton through Spain and France and recorded Jazz Flamenco. 

He was also lucky that another great musician, the Barcelona-based saxophonist Don Byas, encouraged him to play withn the mythical club "Jamboree" in Barcelona's Plaza Reial. After which Tete has played with nearly every great jazz master: saxophonists John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Ben Webster, and Stan Getz; the trumpet players, Chet Baker or Paquito D'Rivera; the drummer, Elvin Jones and the violinist, Stephane Grappelli among others. At the end of the fifties, he gave his first recitals in New York, at the famous club, "Up of the Gate" and was distinguished as the best European jazz pianist by his own colleagues. 

                    

In 1967, Montoliu performed in New York City with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Elvin Jones. Two concerts at the Village Gate in April were recorded for the Impulse! label, but an album was never released. He frequently appeared in Madrid during the 1960s at the Whiskey Jazz Club with musicians Pedro Iturralde and singer Donna Hightower. 

During the 1970s, Montoliu travelled extensively throughout Europe. During the 1980s, he performed in concerts with musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, George Coleman, Joe Henderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Hank Jones, Roy Hargrove, Idris Muhammad, Herbie Lewis and Jesse Davis, among others. 

In 1996 he received one of the many tributes to his career with a concert at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid accompanied by Gary Bartz and Tom Harrell. In November of that year he suffered a sudden cardiac arrhythmia that required the implantation of a pacemaker. His ailment is complicated when lung cancer is detected. Despite this, the best example of the musical greatness of Montoliu's last days was the concert in March 1997at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona to celebrate his 64th birthday, a masterful performance in which he performed songs from Ellington, Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, and Thelonious Monk. 

Among his main recorded works are more than sixty records recorded in different formats, including "Body & Soul" (Black Lion, 1971), "Tete!" (Steple Chase, 1974; "Tete a Tete" (Steple Chase, 1976), "Lunch in LA"original Jazz, 1979)."The Man From Barcelona" (1990) and finally the extraordinary live show in Madrid, "Tete en el San Juan" (Melopea, 1997). 

He died in August 1997 from lung cancer, at the age of 64. After his death, the "Tete Montoliu Jazz Awards Biennial" was created. Tete Montoliu had, among other awards, the National Music Award, the Cross of Sant Jordi from the Generalitat of Catalonia, the Medal of Merit from the Barcelona City Council. 

(Edited from Wikipedia. L’Ostia Music & Commune of Icaria blogs)