Wikipedia:
Juan Llossas (* July 27, 1900 in Barcelona; † May 21, 1957 in Salzburg) was a Spanish musician.
Llossas was born into a prestigious merchant family and was initially to take over his father's business in accordance with his parents' wishes. He received a strict upbringing and education as a monastic student. On the side, however, he was interested in music and was allowed to take piano and organ lessons. He soon ran away and went to South America as a stowaway. There he made his way as a musician and became increasingly enthusiastic about Latin American rhythms.
After his return to Barcelona, his parents gave him permission to study music, which he did at the ''Tonkunst-Akademie'' in Darmstadt, Germany, and later in Berlin with Roesler. Comparable to Michael Jary, for example, he financed his studies on the side with his nightly pianist activities in pubs and began with his first compositions.
Juan Llossas discovered the tango for himself and founded his own dance orchestra, the Original Spanish-Argentine Tango Band ''Juan Llossas''. For the opening of the Femina Bar in Nürnberger Strasse in Berlin on October 1, 1929, his orchestra was engaged alongside formations by Julian Fuhs and Ernö Geiger, and it achieved a breakthrough at its very first performance.
In 1930 he won the "Golden Radio Clock" in the competition of the Berlin Radio ahead of Dajos Béla, Marek Weber and Barnabás von Géczy.
Later, due to time constraints, Llossas had to rent an airplane in order to fulfill all of his scheduling obligations with his orchestra. In between, numerous recordings were made. His band was also used in the sound film.
He was a gifted composer, and the Tango Bolero in particular became his trademark, along with other original compositions such as ''Oh Fräulein Grete'' and ''Blonde Claire''.
Llossas was a member of the Falange, Spain's fascist movement, and was revered in Nazi Germany as "one of General Franco's oldest supporters." The organization "Kraft durch Freude" (KdF) repeatedly engaged him and his band for performances in the armaments industry, for example in July 1942 at the large Eibia powder factory in Bomlitz.[1] Despite trouble with the Reich Chamber of Music because of "jazz overtones" and a "non-Aryan" singer, Juan Llossas came through the war relatively unscathed and lived to see its end with his German wife Ruth in Hamburg. Afterwards he succeeded in a second career, he was engaged with his orchestra for the English soldier station BFN. For almost 4 years he stayed at the Hamburg Music Hall with 43 musicians, 2 arrangers, music writer and secretary. Every week Llossas had to write a new tango, which was then taken by plane to the BBC in London.
He gave many concerts with his orchestra, especially at the ''Hamburg Musikhalle'' and the ''Hamburg Varieté Haus Vaterland''.
Llossas died of a stroke during a guest performance in Salzburg and, in accordance with his widow's wishes, was buried in Ohlsdorf Cemetery.
Note: Translated from a German version of Wikipedia into English.
