It notably provided an opportunity for the staging of many events seen during the first Folk music Festival held in Edinburgh, organised with the help of such talents as the American Alan Lomax, the Irish traditional musician Seamus Ennis and the political theatre director Ewan MacColl, who would go on to form the Ballad and Blues Club.
Operas sung in English struck a note of patriotism in a nation still recovering from the Second World War and then engaged in the Korea.
The biggest selling artists on both sides of the Atlantic were Bing Crosby and Doris Day but British singers such as Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn were also very popular, receiving radio play and performing in many live venues.
They were an essential part of the nightclub scene in the big cities of the time and were heavily influenced by their American counterparts such as Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington.
The smaller Trad Jazz groups in contrast included such then unknowns as George Melly and Acker Bilk, who had recently moved to London to play with Ken Colyer's band.