The Temples of the Blues
Since that legendary night of 11 May 1953, when Big Bill Broonzy performed at the Teatre C.A.P.S.A in what is considered the first concert by a bluesman in Barcelona, this music, with greater or lesser frequency, has never stopped sounding in the city. Over the last seventy years, concert halls, clubs, bars and even restaurants have welcomed the musicians and enthusiasts of the genre, almost always on an underground circuit, a minority one but a militant one. Names such as the Llantiol, the Zeleste, the London, the Bikini, the Savannah, the Apolo, the Limerik, the Santutxo, the Jazz Sí Taller de Músics, the Shotwell, the Milano, or others in outlying towns such as L’Oncle Jack in L’Hospitalet, the Línea 1 in Santa Coloma or the Nova Jazz Cava and the Crossroads in Terrassa, were the refuge of the genre and of its performers. But there were some special venues that marked a milestone in the history of Barcelona blues.
