JAZZ NOPARQUE 2021

In the year that marks the 30th anniversary of Jazz in the Park, our programme brings together internationally acclaimed Portuguese musicians and European musicians who have been significantly involved in the national scene, such as (respectively) João Lobo and Giovanni Di Domenico. The invited artists share yet another factor in common: their trajectories have taken them beyond typical jazz audiences, such as Rita Maria and Filipe Raposo, who will revisit the baroque, and Pedro Sousa’s group, which includes figures that have stood out in the fields of electronic music (Simão Simões, Bruno Silva) and rock (Miguel Abras). This edition opens the stage to artists who have been steadily collaborating beyond boundaries (both territorial and musical). These are 30 years of history which project into as many years of music to come.

Curated by: Rui Eduardo Paes

3 July

Rita Maria / Filipe Raposo “The Art of Song: When Baroque Meets Jazz” (Portugal)

(Porto premiere)

Rita Maria: voice; Filipe Raposo: piano

The voice and piano duo is not uncommon in jazz, but the project that brought together singer Rita Maria and pianist Filipe to explore the “art of song”, since the release of their 2020 album “The Art of Song Vol. 1: When Baroque Meets Jazz”, started as an unconventional approach. Although this is not a novelty (there are other such examples in the history of jazz), it illustrates the vast possibilities that still exist in this area by relating these two musical styles from different times and geographies (jazz and ancient music) having as basis what they share in parallel: improvisation. While last year the pandemic prevented the duo from presenting their interpretation on stage, they are now able to delight us at last with their work. 

10 July

Pedro Sousa “Má Estrela [Ominous star]” (Portugal)

(World premiere)

Pedro Sousa: tenor saxophone, electronica; Simão Simões: computer; Bruno Silva: computer; Miguel Abras: electric bass; Gabriel Ferrandini: drums, electronica

Now a reference in the field of creative jazz and freely improvised music in Portugal, but brimming with echoes from other geographies, Pedro Sousa has a background in electroacoustic music which is, in some way, reflected in this project commissioned by Jazz in the Park. It especially reveals his predilection for dub, a subgenre of reggae characterized by the manipulation of pre-recorded material, which, in the case of “Má Estrela”, is framed within a specifically jazz approach. In the accompanying group, we find the national musicians with whom Sousa has shared experiences throughout the years, such as Gabriel Ferrandini, partner in the duo PeterGabriel and other, many, sound adventures.

17 July

Going (Italy / Belgium / Portugal / France)

(A premiere of new compositions)

Giovanni Di Domenico: Fender Rhodes electric piano, electronica; Pak Yan Lau: synthesizers, Hohner pianet, electronica; João Lobo: drums; Mathieu Calleja: drums.

One of the various groups that include Italian Giovanni Di Domenico and Portuguese João Lobo is the quartet Going, with an unusual format of two keyboard players and two drummers; a project that finds inspiration in North African and Middle Eastern trance music and incorporates into it influences from Can’s krautrock, Steve Reich’s minimalism and John Coltrane’s “sheets of sound” with the clear aim of achieving a time suspension in the listeners’ conditioned perceptual experience. For the musicians, this constitutes a “journey across the star system of contemporary cities” by applying poly-rhythms from both exploratory electronic music and the retro sound lent to jazz by the Fender Rhodes fifty years after Miles Davis’ recording of “Bitches Brew”.