Federico "Fred" Díaz Elizalde (December 12, 1907 – January 16, 1979)[1] was a Spanish Filipino classical and jazz pianist, composer, conductor, and bandleader, influential in the British dance band era.
He then embarked on a career as a jazz bandleader, leading the Stanford University Band at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, while he studied composition.
The band was voted best popular dance orchestra in Melody Maker in 1928, but older guests at the Savoy were offended by his music, and controversial broadcasts over the BBC did not help his case.
"[6] In the same period, Elizalde composed works which melded jazz and European concert music elements, including "The Heart of a Nigger"[5] (1927; produced in 1928 by Sergei Diaghilev)[4] and "Bataclan" (1929).
In 1928, he wrote the music for Pola Negri's final silent film, The Way of Lost Souls (1929; aka The Woman He Scorned).
[7][8][9] Elizalde broke up his band in 1929,[5] after a poorly received tour in Scotland and the onset of the Great Depression, which necessitated the return home of many of his American sidemen.
In 1936, he returned from France to enroll in the Requeti troops of Navarre, a Basque regiment, and fought under Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War until 1939.