Jazznewblood following #jazzfuturenow in Lisbon feat Simon Moullier 4tet @HotClub
Yesterday, #jazznewblood followed #jazzfuturenow all the way to Lisbon and the oldest Jazz Club in the city, the legendary 'HotClub de Portugal'.
On the line-up, I was looking forward to see Simon Moullier Quartet, a vibraphone lead band, featuring Portuguese own talent, accordionist - João Barradas and drummer - Bruno Pedroso, together with double bass player - Luca Alemanno.
Both Simon and Luca are Thelonious Monk Institute students.
With a playground of outstanding original compositions from Simon (at least 1 from João Barradas) this talented group had a lot to play with and you could feel the joy and amazing musicianship coming from the stage.
The Jazz scene in Lisbon is growing in #youthjazztalent and is well represented in names like, the always busy, Jazz Accordionist virtuoso, João Barradas, signed to the New York label 'Inner Circle Music',
or the saxophonist Ricardo Toscano, both recognised by the media as the future of Portuguese Jazz.
Ricardo Toscano is so in demand, he doesn´t need a cd to be regularly featured in the Jazz local press. His debut cd is already recorded, just waiting to see the light of day, so watch out for this one!!!
The boom of tourism in Lisbon is probably helping increase opportunities for Jazz players, in small settings, but for the local musicians, there´s still a lack of local audiences in numbers to make the Jazz lifestyle sustainable.
Portugal needs a 'jazzrefreshed' organisation to open the ears of the major Jazz promoters for the talent growing in their own backyard.
Unfortunately local promoters are not very good at nurturing youth Jazz talent and music education is almost absent from the early years stages.
One Festival doing some nurturing is 'Festa do Jazz' a Festival happening every year in April.
From its organisers comes a really interesting website resource called - Portugalemjazz.pt (Portugal in Jazz)- giving extensive information about Jazz schools and network activities in the Country from North to South.
HotClub has been, for a very long time, one of the few Jazz hubs in the Country and I came across this amazing poster of the 1ª Cascais Jazz Festival from 1971, considered at the time
the 'Newport Festival of Europe'.
The first official International Jazz Festival in Portugal, was born from a conversation between one of 'HotClub Portugal' founders - Luís Villas-Boas and a fado singer - João Braga, both Jazz Lovers.
This first edition (ended in 1988) managed to happen during the authoritarian Estado Novo regime but was involved in controversy after Charlie Haden - playing at the Festival with Ornette Coleman band - dedicated 'Song for Che' to the black liberation movements in Angola and Mozambique, former Portuguese colonies in Africa.
Charlie Haden end up in jail to be interrogated by the regime about his provocative comments during the concert.
Other artists on the Festival roster included Miles Davis (his first performance in Portugal), Dexter Gordon and The Bridge Quartet, The Giants of Jazz - Thelonious Monk, Kai Winding, Art Blakey, Sonny Stitt, Al McKibbon and Dizzy Gillespie.
Here´s a cool vid of the Festival:
