Guimarães Jazz 2023

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THURSDAY 9 - SATURDAY 18 NOVEMBER

Guimarães Jazz 2023

32st edition

Music

Maiores de 6

Event

In 2023, after an edition marked by the festival’s return to its traditional format of close communion between the audience and the musicians and thus characterized by a tone of straightforward celebration of the reopening of the world after a period of temporary paralysis, Guimarães Jazz faces a scenario of deep transformation, a transformation that now seems to be not only purely technological or aesthetic, but truly systemic. The line-up of this thirtieth-second edition may be eventually considered more circumspect and intellectually challenging in terms of its proposals but, as it has always been the case throughout the history of the festival, it continues to privilege the primacy of independent choice, fully aware that the future will be determined by the decisions we make in the present. In general terms, the 2023 program is marked, as usual, by a sensible balance between tradition and innovation and by stylistic, geographical and generational eclecticism, both in terms of the projects as well as of the musicians featured in them. The recognition of this evidence does not prevent us, however, to acknowledge that in this edition we pay a particular attention to the current jazz scene of New York and to the experimental tendencies that are increasingly relevant to the definition of jazz’s contemporary identity. Furthermore, we may also highlight the significative presence of European musicians in almost every group presented, an explicit symptom of the decentralization of the jazz phenomenon in regards to its original territory.

The overture and the closing of Guimarães Jazz 2023 will feature two orchestras, a double proposal that works as a reflecting mirror of the two differentiated poles representing the orchestral dimension of jazz music. The inauguration will of the responsibility of an ensemble that is considered one of the more prestigious examples of the purest jazz tradition from New York: the iconic Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, a group with more than half a century of activity, which is directed by the reputed Dick Oatts. The closing of the festival will present the big band led by Kathrine Windfeld, a Danish composer and pianist who is currently one of the most highlighted names of the new wave of European orchestral jazz, in a concert that will also feature the contributions of two renowned soloists: Israeli guitarist Gilad Hekselman and Nort-American saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins. The set of orchestras included in this year’s program will also include the reedition of the partnership between Guimarães Jazz and the Orchestra of Guimarães, in this case accompanying the Mário Costa Quartet formed, besides the talented Portuguese drummer who is the leader of this project, by three distinguished musicians of the global jazz circuit: French double-bassist Bruno Chevillon, American-Vietnamese trumpeter Cuong Vu and Belgian keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin.

On of the most canonical formations of jazz history (the quartet of piano, saxophone, bass and drums) will be extensively featured at this edition of the festival, represented by three groups with very different identities and sonorities. Firstly, we must highlight the band “Something New”, led by Buster Williams, an epicentral double-bassist of jazz fusion, creative accomplice of Herbie Hancock and eventually the most historically resonant name included in this year’s line-up. At the second day of the festival, it will be quartet led by Aaron Parks, a pianist who will be performing at Guimarães for the third time and who for the first time presents a project under his own name, the formation assigned with the task of interpreting and reinventing the legacy of North-American jazz. Lastly, the ensemble of collective composition and improvisation Landline Plus One, formed by four musicians highly identified with the New York’s jazz scene – Jacob Sacks (another pianist with a close relation with Portugal), Chet Doxas, Vinnie Sperrazza and Zack Lober – and expanded by the collaboration with young Dutch trumpeter Suzan Veneman, will perform at the mainstage of the festival and will also be responsible for the direction of the jam sessions, of the workshops and of the concert alongside Jazz Orchestra of ESMAE.

In opposition to the jazz canon, the Guimarães Jazz 2023 edition presents three projects that approach the zones of intersection of jazz with the avant-garde tendencies of contemporaneity. Besides the festival’s partnership with the collective Sonoscopia – which for many years to this date has been pursuing the objective of exploring the experimental tangencies adjacent to the jazz phenomenon and which this year proposes a solo concert of the extraordinary composer and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp, a name that reaffirms the extreme pertinency of this institutional relation between the festival and Sonoscopia –, this aesthetical dimension of contemporary jazz will be fulfilled by two groups formed by some of the most free and creative musicians in contemporary music. British composer and double-bassist Barry Guy – one of the crucial names of European music of the last five decades – will perform in trio, accompanied by two exceptional instrumentalists – Swiss violinist Maya Homburger and Spanish pianist Agustí Fernández – in a project in which jazz, free improvisation and the tradition of European classical music harmoniously converge; the same day, at night, the mainstage will be occupied by the septet New Digs, led by double-bassist Michael Formanek, one of the most influential figures of New York’s avant-garde jazz, and formed by a group of distinguished musicians, among them Alexander Hawkins, Mary Halvorson and Tomas Fujiwara, three emerging names in the circuit of contemporary music and who are sure to be among those who will shape the future of jazz to come.

The line-up of this edition of Guimarães Jazz is completed by the festival’s two other partnerships, namely with the association Porta-Jazz – the 2023 proposal is a quartet led by the Portuguese saxophonist José Soares in collaboration with the Argentinian artist and filmmaker Varvara Tazelaar – and the Center of Jazz Studies of the University of Aveiro – that in 2023 awarded the Pedro Molina Quartet with the prize of best ensemble and best original arrangement –, therefore reaffirming the festival’s commitment to the deepening of its relation with the institutions we consider to be developing a praiseworthy work in the context of Portuguese jazz and promoting artistic creation in this field of music.

Thursday 9 November, 09:30 PM • CCVF

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra

Thad Jones 100

15,00 eur / 10,00 eur c/d
details ➞

Friday 10 November, 09:30 PM • CCVF

Aaron Parks Quartet

details ➞

15,00 eur / 10,00 eur c/d

Saturday 11 November, 03:00 PM • CCVF

Projeto Centro de Estudos de Jazz - Univ. Aveiro / Guimarães Jazz

Pedro Molina Quartet

10,00 eur / 7,50 eur c/d
details ➞