Prelude Undersea was the first concert of the project Grand Sound Fishing: Mission to the Bottom of the Sea. It was the product of the first work phase with the students of Augusto Gomes Secondary School (ESAG) and with the Organisation of Retired Fishermen of Matosinhos (APAM), consisting of a sequence of sound textures, original melodies and conventional themes from the jazz repertoire. The positioning of the performers and musicians around the audience promoted work on sound spacialisation which, along with the fact of being a concert for 20 people maximum, gave the concert an intimate character.

Once in a while one must go back to the origins to take a deep breath. OJM makes music in many fronts, working with countless composers and arrangers and developing innovative projects and partnerships with renowned soloists. But it was here that it began: with the original creations of Pedro Guedes and Carlos Azevedo. This is how the first years and the first records were, especially the one recorded with the North-American saxophone player Chris Cheek, almost 10 years ago. More than the reedition of that reunion, this is the occasion to listen to new original compositions by the pair of musicians that has been running OJM since ever, embellished by the solos of a crucial contemporary jazz saxophone player.

November 28th Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos goes on tour with the great American saxophone player.

Mark Turner has become a top reference of contemporary jazz in the turning of the century, with several seminal albums and intense collaborations with a generation of musicians that include names such as Brad Mehldau, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Joshua Redman and Chris Potter, among others. His expressive personality merges with the tenor saxophone in an admirable way, knowing as few how to transform a network of inevitable influences – Coltrane, Henderson, Shorter – in a pure and original language. He is a calm and reflexive musical personality, but also adventurous making good use of the plain technical domain of the instrument. His last album, produced last year, became a happening: after 13 years without recording as leader, he joined the mythic ECM to present Lathe of Heaven, enthusiastically celebrated by the critic.

The year of 2008 marked the first meeting of Mark Tuner and OJM as one of the three guest saxophone players of the project 3 Tenores [Tenors]. Already then we had the opportunity to listen to his performance of the original music of Pedro Guedes and Carlos Azevedo. Actually, one should recall that it was with that same music that everything began for the Matosinhos big bang, a decade and a half ago. The compositions of the two directors of the orchestra were a milestone in the national jazz creation, and several of those titles are now revisited side by side with recent compositions by both of them.

The reunion of OJM with Mark Tuner marks another important step in the internationalisation of the group, after trips to Brussels, Milan, New York, France and Barcelona. It takes place in the room Auditori as part of the prestigious Voll Damm Barcelona International Jazz Festival, an enormous festival that happens between the 26th September and the 11th December and of which this year’s programme includes names such as Diana Krall, Chick Corea, Chucho Valdés, Marc Ribot and Kurt Rosenwinkel.

To illustrate the birth and establishment of the jazz big bands and to introduce to the public some of their most renowned composers, musicians and leaders is the main goal of Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos (OJM).

In this programme, OJM covers three essential moments in the history of the big bands: their origins, passed by a certain ingenuity of the “symphonic jazz” and the establishment of the genius of Duke Ellington, one of the most brilliant and elegant conductors of great orchestras; the dancing jazz, phase that culminates with the revelation of the great Count Basie; and finally the swing establishment epoch, with several time resistant personalities, among whom stand out Jimmy Lucenford and Benny Goodman. This programme, conceived by Manuel Jorge Veloso, confirms OJM’s notable ability to dive into the history of jazz and to relive unforgettable moments and atmospheres in the pioneer years of establishment of the big bands.

Concert part of "Obra em Festa" ["Party at the Building Work"], an event promoted by Matosinhos City Council in partnership with Casa da Arquitectura and Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos for the presentation of the project and rehabilitation work of Real Vinícola. Free Admission.

OJM invests once again on the new Portuguese jazz generation inviting one of the great recent saxophone revelations for a unique concert at the Cine-Teatro Constantino Nery, in Matosinhos.

After the first two concerts devoted to voice, the new OJM cycle with young establishing soloists within the national jazz continues with saxophone on October 17th. The first guest, Ricardo Toscano, won the Young Musicians Prize 2011 with a quartet with André Santos, João Hasselberg and João Pereira in the first edition that this competition included the jazz category. With only 22 years old completed last September, he has already collaborated with artists such as Carlos do Carmo, Camané, Rui Veloso and António Zambujo, and was chosen by Mário Laginha for a cycle of concerts programmed by the prestigious pianist for Casa da Música. This year he was part of the Lisbon Jazz Sextet reedition side by side with Mário Laginha, Tomás Pimentel, Edgar Caramelo, Pedro Barreiros e Mário Barreiros. More than a promise, Ricardo Toscano is already a firm voice of the national jazz, wanted by his peers as well as by the veterans.

In this concert in Matosinhos, Toscano and OJM run through some of the crucial moments of the North-American music for big band, passing through huge composers such as Billy Strayhorn (with a theme written for the famous Duke Ellington orchestra), Bob Brookmeyer and Maria Schneider – three generations of inevitable composers for this format. Attesting Toscano’s predilection for the approach to his greater references, more than to hasten attempts in the field of original composition, stands out the interpretation of two excellent arrangements by Gil Evans from the historical album New Bottle Old Wine, from 1958, that had Cannonball Aderley has soloist.

The other half of the concert has as starting point OJM’s already long repertoire. Sargaço and Does it Matter are compositions by Pedro Guedes and Carlos Azevedo, respectively, who also author the other three arrangements in the programme, originally created for projects of the orchestra with the guitar player Kurt Rosenwinkel and the singer Maria João.

This OJM project continues in 2016 with another guest saxophone player, João Mortágua.

To illustrate the birth and establishment of the jazz big bands and to introduce to the public some of their most renowned composers, musicians and leaders is the main goal of Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos (OJM).

In this programme, OJM covers three essential moments in the history of the big bands: their origins, passed by a certain ingenuity of the “symphonic jazz” and the establishment of the genius of Duke Ellington, one of the most brilliant and elegant conductors of great orchestras; the dancing jazz, phase that culminates with the revelation of the great Count Basie; and finally the swing establishment epoch, with several time resistant personalities, among whom stand out Jimmy Lucenford and Benny Goodman.

This programme, conceived by Manuel Jorge Veloso, confirms OJM’s notable ability to dive into the history of jazz and to relive unforgettable moments and atmospheres in the pioneer years of establishment of the big bands.

Commemorative concert of the 89th Anniversary of the Council Emancipation of S. João da Madeira City Council

After the concert at Casa da Música in Porto, just over a year ago, the performance in Ovar and the crowded concert at Praça dos Leões during the festival NOS in D’Bandada, the Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos and Manuela Azevedo meet again, this time for a free concert on the Matosinhos waterfront. A must see show next Saturday, July 25, at 22 h

Apresentação do primeiro módulo de programação e provocação do projeto CARA no âmbito do 12.º encontro Música Viva 2015. Para dar corpo a este módulo, designado por CARA Ano Zero, foram encomendadas cinco peças originais a cinco compositores portugueses: Filipe Lopes, Gustavo Costa, Igor C. Silva, Rui Penha e Rui Dias. Esta apresentação foi ainda complementada com um fresco electroacústico de Miguel Negrão.

This reunion of Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos with Kurt Rosenwinkel brings the debut of new arrangements on Rosenwinkel compositions: “Flute”, arranged by Ohad Talmor, “Song of our Sea”, arranged by Pedro Guedes and “Cycle Five”, arranged by Carlos Azevedo.

After the Grand Sound Fishing: First Improvisations, this school year the work was based on the music creation and on the regular contact with the students, spreading its ray of action to literature students (creative writing), and fine art students (video and animation works). It culminated in a concert that integrated the school community of the Augusto Gomes Secondary School and Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos.

After the Grand Sound Fishing: First Improvisations, this school year the work was based on the music creation and on the regular contact with the students, spreading its ray of action to literature students (creative writing), and fine art students (video and animation works). It culminated in a concert that integrated the school community of the Augusto Gomes Secondary School and Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos.

Rita Maria is one of the guests of a new project of Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, focused on revealing some of the best soloists of the Portuguese jazz. The concert of the young singer accompanied by OJM at Cine-Teatro Constantino Nery, in Matosinhos, is part of the cycle dedicated to the voice.

Rita Maria is experienced in the most diverse musical genres, from fado to rock, to fusion and world music, and although she commits herself strongly to each and everyone of them, it is to jazz that she owes her main education. The Lisbon singer moved to Porto to study at ESMAE (which had the first jazz academic graduation in the country, created by OJM’s directors, Pedro Guedes and Carlos Azevedo) and launched her first album Míope e o Arco-íris, in 2013.

In this concert, Rita Maria interprets classics from the Brazilian and Latin-american music, a sign that her strong connection to Equator, where she spent an important part of her adult life, is manifested in her influences.

Encontros e Despedidas by Milton Nascimento and Fernando Brant; and Soledad by Jorge Dexler, two themes arranged by Pedro Guedes, that the Brazilian Maria Rita sang with OJM a few years ago, are re-interpreted by Rita Maria in this show, where the singer also recalls a marking moment of her trajectory, the music Poema à Mãe, by Gonçalo Moreira and Eugénio de Andrade (here arranged by João Pedro Brandão), that she sang for the first time in her graduation recital at ESMAE.

Proof of Rita Maria’s quest for new challenges, the soloist will interpret the theme in Crioulo, Lua by Princezito with arrangement by Pedro Guedes, an emblematic Cape Verde song and part of the repertoire that Mayra Andrade presented in a past collaboration with OJM; and the nostalgic Alfonsina y El Mar by Ariel Ramírez and Félix Luna, a classic that pays homage to the Argentinian poet Alfonsina Storni (here arranged by Javier Pereiro).

One of the original themes selected by Rita Maria is Abdicação, based on Fernando Pessoa’s poem and part of her first album, that was originally composed for the Festival Jazz in Situ 2011, in Equator. For this concert with OJM the arrangements were made by António Pedro Neves.

Rita Maria also presents modern jazz reference pieces like Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, signed by Charles Mingus and Joni Mitchell and arranged by Pedro Guedes; and themes that reflect the best of what is being done in Portuguese music, such as Onde Mora o Mundo, a collaboration between Afonso Pais and JP Simões, with arrangements by Rui Teixeira; Certeza by João Paulo Esteves da Silva arranged Carlos Azevedo; and a reference to the national pop rock with Dançar na Corda Bamba by Clã, arranged by José Pedro Coelho.

Rita Maria reveals herself as one of the new generation singers that brings her own identity to the national jazz. In the next concerts of this OJM project – that started with a concert of Sofia Ribeiro, in November 2014 – we will assist to the performance of more soloists and instrument players of excellence accompanied by the big band.