Amadora Jazz Festival starts this week

The 12th edition of the Amadora Jazz Festival returns between the 9th and 12th of May, between Recreios da Amadora, the Cineteatro D. João V and the Alfornelos Auditorium and takes place in the context of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April “Amadora, City of April”.

In 2024, Amadora Jazz reaffirms its vital role in the cultural life of the Municipality of Amadora, consolidating its position as one of the main jazz events in the country. With a carefully selected line-up and in line with the celebrations of Luis Villas-Boas’ 100th birthday and the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April, the festival seeks to continue attracting national attention and positioning the city as an unmissable destination for jazz lovers.

The Festival is organized by the Amadora City Council, with the Jazz ao Centro Clube association as its programming partner. All parallel programming is in partnership with Égide – Associação Portuguesa das Artes.

According to the Amadora City Council, “Amadora Jazz is an event that has featured “leading figures in national and international jazz”. This edition will feature significant projects in the jazz world, aimed at the most diverse audiences, investing once again in diversification of the offer and the quality of the proposals presented, simultaneously seeking to retain audiences by reinforcing the commitment to the jazz universe. Special emphasis on the projects by Isabel Rato and Júlio Resende that celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April.”

For José Miguel, director of JACC, “the program reflects the legacy of April, including, in its program, two concerts by Portuguese artists – Isabel Rato and Júlio Resende – who deal directly with the socio-cultural heritage of what was a determinant of Portuguese society
contemporary.

On the other hand, Amadora Jazz seeks to maintain and consolidate its trajectory as a relevant moment in the cultural offer of the municipality and the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, engaging audiences who, whether knowledgeable or simply curious, will be able to identify in the festival the mark of a careful and distinctive, which brings together artists from different backgrounds and paths, allowing access to the living reality of Jazz.

While it is true that David Murray’s presence deserves to be highlighted, given his central role in this music, over the last five decades, the 12th edition of Amadora Jazz presents many good reasons to celebrate April (in May), to the sound of the best music!”

HIGHLIGHTS

Among the shows of this 12th edition of Amadora Jazz, the names of some of the most important artists on the national and international music scene appear, such as David Murray Quartet, Isabel Rato Quinteto, Júlio Resende with the presentation of the Fado Jazz project, Lokomotiv by Carlos Barretto, Mário Delgado, José Salgueiro and Ricardo Toscano. There will still be time to listen to the GeraJazz project.

Isabel Rato Quintet

Isabel Rato Quintet | May 9th, 9pm | Recreios da Amadora | M/6

• Isabel Rato piano and arrangements
• João David Almeida voice
• João Capinha saxophones
• João Custódio double bass
• Alexandre Ferreira Alves drums

Isabel Rato, a Portuguese pianist, composer, arranger and producer, is one of the most prominent names in the Portuguese Jazz scene.

In the context of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April, Isabel Rato presents her new album “Vale das Flores” which will have one of its first performances at Amadora Jazz.

What will be the pianist’s fourth album in her own name is a tribute to Freedom, and proposes relentaras by essential authors of Portuguese music and vital in the fight for freedom, such as José Afonso and Sérgio Godinho. We will also hear some traditional Portuguese songs from our universal heritage of timeless melodies.

Júlio Resende

Júlio Resende Fado Jazz “Children of the Revolution” | May 10th, 9pm | Recreios da Amadora | M/6

• Júlio Resende piano
• Bruno Chaveiro Portuguese guitar
• André Rosinha double bass
• Alexandre Frazão drums

“Júlio Resende has the profound ability to reinvent traditional Portuguese music, intense and emotional, through the piano”, writes the renowned world music magazine “Songlines” about the Portuguese pianist and composer.

His concept of “Fado Jazz” is a perfect example of Jazz as a global language of free musical expression. The freedom of the Portuguese people is closely associated with the Carnation Revolution of 1974, to which Júlio Resende dedicates the song “Sons of the Revolution”.

The peaceful overthrow of dictator Salazar not only paved the way for democracy but also marked the end of the Portuguese colonial wars in Mozambique and Angola. “Without the revolution, I wouldn’t even exist”, says Júlio Resende. “My father is from Angola, and after the revolution, he emigrated to Portugal, where he met my mother.”

Lokomotiv

LOKOMOTIV | May 10th, 11pm | Alfornelos Auditorium | M/6

• Carlos Barretto double bass
• Mário Delgado guitar
• José Salgueiro drums
• Ricardo Toscano alto saxophone

Lokomotiv has stood out for its enormous aesthetic flexibility, interested only in practising jazz that has everything to do with our time. Barretto, Delgado and Salgueiro have long been revealing a wide range of musical interests that cover trends such as rock, jazz, world music and classical, placing themselves among the Portuguese exponents of an eclecticism that is the hallmark of this country. beginning of the century.

To celebrate 25 years of activity, they invited saxophonist Ricardo Toscano to be part of the band and record album 25 as a quartet with original songs.

David Murray Quartet

David Murray Quartet | May 11th, 9pm | Recreios da Amadora | M/6

• David Murray tenor sax
• Marta Sanchez piano
• Luke Stewart double bass
• Russell Carter drums

David Murray is a prolific and multifaceted musician and composer, whose work, comprising around two hundred albums, including more than one hundred and thirty under his own name, demonstrates an eclectic approach to jazz, expressed not only in terms of the musical languages they converge in it but also due to the fact that it ventures into other artistic territories such as cinema, dance, theatre and opera.

Murray was born in Oakland, and grew up in Berkeley, where he studied with Bobby Bradford, Arthur Blythe, and Stanley Crouch. In 1975 he moved to New York, where he met Cecil Taylor who, together with Dewey Redman, took charge of encouraging the young Murray. In New York, he played with Sunny Murray, Oliver Lake and Don Cherry, meeting Hamiet Bluiett, Lester Bowie and Frank Lowe in Ted Daniel’s Energy Band.

In 1976, after a European tour, together with Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett and Julius Hemphil, he created the World Saxophone Quartet, an absolutely fundamental formation in the historiography of Jazz. Until 1978 he worked in very diverse contexts (from Jerry Garcia to Max Roach, from Randy Weston to Elvin Jones).

At the start of the 1980s, David Murray was in a particularly creative phase of his career, taking on work under his own name, with multiple recordings in various contexts. He remained extremely productive throughout the 80s and 90s, building a solid reputation and accumulating recognition.

Arriving at the new millennium and despite being relatively young, Murray seemed to have already done everything, immersing himself in the culture of the West Indies and Central America, and in African culture (with stays in South Africa and Senegal).

It’s no wonder that Murray, a citizen of Mundo, also passed through Portugal, keeping a house in Sines.

His new quartet, debuting in 2023, brings together Murray and three young musicians handpicked by himself.

GeraJazz

GeraJazz | May 12th, 5pm | Cineteatro D. João V | M/6
.Free entry, upon ticket collection and limited to room capacity

Gerajazz is, as the name suggests, a project dedicated to jazz that was born in 2010/2011 within Orquestra Geração, which is inspired by the System of “Orquestras Infantiles e Juveniles” in Venezuela. With the artistic direction of maestro and teacher Eduardo Lála, Gerajazz has been developing intense work to train young people with a view to creating a jazz orchestra. Going through the African-American popular tradition and the modal jazz of Herbie Hancock, as well as the swing and funk soul of Jaco Pastorius and Nina Simone, or the drums rooted in the tradition of Art Blakey, among other influences, GeraJazz works on important themes of international jazz. Several jazz musicians have collaborated with Gerajazz over the years, such as Mário Laginha, Salvador Sobral, Ricardo Toscano, Mário Delgado, Filipe Melo, Carlos Martins, Pedro Segundo and Tomás Marques, among others, in various festivals, concerts and training.

PARALLEL PROGRAMMING

2024 marks a double centenary with great significance in the national jazz scene: the birth of Luís Villas-Boas (1924-1999) – considered the “father” of jazz in Portugal – and the first jazz concert held in the country by a foreign group, the Pan-American Ragtime Band, which took place in 1924 at the Teatro da Trindade, in Lisbon. To celebrate this double anniversary, the 12th edition of Amadora Jazz receives on the 11th of May a complete program created by Égide – Associação Portuguesa das Artes –, an event that includes a painting exhibition by the artist Xico Fran, the presentation of the book “Luís Villas-Boas, the father of Jazz in Portugal”, by João Moreira dos Santos, and also the performance of the Syncopators sextet, which recreates the music of the first North American jazz group to play in Portugal, in 1927. The program takes place at Cineteatro D. João V, with free entry and limited to the capacity of the room.

PROGRAM
4:00 pm – Opening of the exhibition 100 years of Jazz in Portugal, by Xico Fran.
4:30 pm – Presentation of the book Luís Villas-Boas, the father of Jazz in Portugal, by João Moreira dos Santos.
5:00 pm – Performance by the sextet Syncopators: Moisés Fernandes (bugle), Alexandre Castaldo (soprano saxophone), Ricardo Sousa (trombone), Cláudio Campos (guitar and banjo), José Amoreira (double bass) and Martim Correia (drums).

Amadora Jazz tickets are on sale at www.ticketline.sapo.pt and on site two hours before the start of the concerts, with prices varying between 10 and 20 euros.

ABOUT AMADORA JAZZ

Organized by the Amadora City Council in partnership with Jazz ao Centro Clube (JACC).

The first editions of the Festival were held under the name Ciclo de Jazz da Amadora (2011-2017). During this period, the artistic orientation was anchored in the desire to create a privileged moment for contact with the most relevant Jazz proposals made in Portugal, having as protagonists both consolidated artists and valuable names whose work deserved visibility and a stage.
The success of this formula allowed that, from the 9th edition onwards, in 2019, Amadora Jazz could devote a place on its lineup to international artists without, however, abandoning its fundamental premises.

Always confirm with the concert hall or promoter the conditions of access, confirmation of the date or time, ticket place of sale, price, and availability.

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