When you separate jazz's various forms, you find rhythms and melodies from Africa and the Caribbean, Old World harmonies, even syncopation from the Scottish Highlands. Flamenco is one of the oldest known forms of folk music in Europe. They came to Spain in the 15th century where they had a lasting influence on the culture, although they remained a hunted and oppressed minority. In its present form flamenco is approximately 100 years old, as is jazz. Flamenco and jazz come from the heart, from unbearable melancholy.
Blues is a fundamental part of jazz, and flamenco can be thought of as Spanish blues.
Miles Davis sensitized the jazz listeners to flamenco, or at least to Iberian-tinged music. Their 1959-60 recording of Sketches of Spain did without Spanish musicians, while capturing the Spanish mentality. In 1961 the shining light of jazz, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, made a much-heralded excursion into the Iberian musical landscape with his album Ol . Later in the USA, stars such as Chick Corea with his 1976 album My Spanish Heart, declared their belief in the music of this Southern European land. Likewise, in Spain in the early 70's saxophonist Pedro Iturralde and the famous flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia were the first to enter into a liaison with jazz.