(December 12th 1907 - January 16th 1979)

Federico Elizalde was born in the Philippine capital of Manila in 1907. As a boy he showed a great aptitude for piano music and was enrolled in the Madrid Royal Conservatory at the age of seven and became their top student by the time he was fourteen. After attending St. Joseph's College, London in the 1920s he studied law at in the United States at Stanford University but left the school in 1926 in favor of being a jazz bandleader. following his return to England he did just that and organized his own group.