Portuguese and foreign jazz musicians gather on stage at the São Luiz Theater in Lisbon, March 27-31, at the Jazz Lisboa Festival, organized by the Hot Clube de Portugal.
[dropcap type=”default”]T[/dropcap]he program of the festival, which includes “concerts with Portuguese and foreign musicians, seeks to establish bridges with other jazz festivals around the world and that gives special attention to the training of young musicians,” reads the official website of the Chiado showroom.
The Festival Jazz Jazz comes a year after the Jazz Festival has left the Teatro São Luiz, where it was held annually since the first edition in 2003. The 16th edition of the Jazz Festival organized by the association Sons da Lusofonia ran between 23 and March 25, at the National Conservatory and other nearby venues, in Bairro Alto, also in Lisbon.
In January last year, Carlos Martins, of the Sons da Lusofonia association lamented the “institutional disloyalty” of the municipal theatre, for having demarcated from the 16th edition, four months before it happened. At the time, the artistic director of São Luiz, Aida Tavares, justified the decision in order to reflect on the programming dedicated to jazz.
The 1st edition of the Lisbon Jazz Festival opens on March 27 with the performance of the Hot Club of Portugal Jazz Orchestra, which will have invited the American drummer John Hollenbeck.
On March 28, bass player Bernardo Moreira presents the project “Between Walls” in which he returns to the repertoire of guitarist Carlos Paredes, after the album “Ao Paredes confesso“, of 2002. Bernardo Moreira will be accompanied by João Moreira (trumpet), Tomás Marques (alto saxophone), Ricardo Dias (piano), Mário Delgado (guitar) and Joel Silva (drums).
On the same day, accordionist João Barradas presents the album “Portrait”, accompanied by American Mark Turner (tenor saxophone), Simon Moullier (vibraphone), Luca Alemanno (bass) and Naíma Acuña (drums).
The pianist Filipe Raposo presents on March 29 “Ocre“, his most recent work.
Also on March 29th, the band Coreto, composed of 12 musicians linked to Oporto, presents “Analog“, published at the end of 2017. The Coreto is composed by João Pedro Brandão (alto saxophone and flute), José Pedro Coelho (tenor saxophone Ricardo Formoso (trumpet), Susana Santos Silva (trumpet), Andreia Santos (trombone), Hugo Caldeira (trombone), AP (guitar), Hugo Raro (piano), Hugo Ciríaco (tenor saxophone), Rui Teixeira (baritone saxophone) ), José Carlos Barbosa (double bass) and José Marrucho (drums).
The fourth day of the festival, March 30, is dedicated to drummers, with concerts by American Jeff Williams and João Lencastre.
Jeff Williams presents “Lifelike“, accompanied by John O’Gallagher (alto saxophone), Jodh Arcoleo (tenor saxophone), Gonçalo Marques (trumpet) and Sam Lasserson (double bass).
João Lencastre will perform with his Communion group, which includes Ricardo Toscano (alto saxophone), Albert Cirera (tenor saxophone and soprano), João Paulo Esteves da Silva (piano), André Fernandes (guitar), Pedro Branco, Nelson Cascais (bass) and João Hasselberg (electric bass and electronic).
On that day, in the afternoon, the Portuguese youth orchestra Big Band Júnior is performing, as part of the São Luiz Theater cycle “Jazz is for you”, directed at children from the age of six and with performances commented on by the pianist Inês Laginha.
These 45-minute concerts aim to show the audience the instruments of the orchestra, experiment with sounds and melodies, tell stories of jazz, and tell the musicians about their own experience with the Big Band in an attempt to bring the music closer to children.
Created in 2010, the Big Band Junior is a jazz school orchestra which includes about twenty musicians between 12 and 19 years old, with stages and concerts.
For the last day of the Jazz Festival Lisbon is kept the show Jazz Band Workshop, with the direction of the North American bass player Greg Cohen.
According to the organization, this concert will result from the work that Greg Cohen will develop with a number of young musicians from local schools during the week that the festival takes place.
“With one or more bands, resulting from the workshop, this Sunday afternoon concert – with free admission – will close the 2019 Lisbon Jazz Festival,” read on the São Luiz website.
