Royal Insight Forum

QuoteWhen the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited a jazz workshop yesterday, which is part of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, they were following in a long tradition of British royalty getting involved with jazz.

Buckingham Palace itself was named as a "significant British jazz location" in 2009 and given a (Kind of) Blue plaque – it was the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis's Kind of Blue album – in recognition of being the place that hosted the first jazz performance before a head of state. That was 1919, when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band played a command performance for King George V.

George V (Charles's great-grandfather) cried out his approval during the tune Tiger Rag, and he must have enjoyed the experience because jazz musicians, including Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong, were invited back to the palace several times during his reign. The king was particularly taken with Bechet's composition Characteristic Blues and the king was also wowed by trumpeter Armstrong, who dedicated one song to him with the words: "This one's for you, Rex."

More: The royals and their love of jazz - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/10980246/The-royals-and-their-love-of-jazz.html)