Combining the favourable location of Matosinhos for exchanges between Europe and America, and the experience of Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos as the sound of the new Portuguese jazz for large ensemble, the OJM programmed a cycle of eight concerts, with eight unique creators of music for jazz orchestra from both sides of the Atlantic.

From the American continent, comes the North-Americans Steven Bernstein, who as a composer combines the avant-garde jazz with popular music, and Darcy James Argue, who introduces pop/rock music textures in his works; the Argentine Guillermo Klein, with a style that includes the dismantling of South American rhythms and classical music of the XX century; and the Swiss living in the USA, Ohad Talmor, a composer who bases on tradition to find new perspectives for contemporary jazz.

Four Europeans join these four American composers; two of them are founders and leaders of two of the most prestigious big bands in Europe: Pierre Bertrand, head of the Paris Jazz Big Band, and Frank Vaganée, director of the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. The British saxophonist Julien Argüelles and the German pianist Florian Ross are also in the list of these elite of composers.

In the Jazz Composers Forum, the eight composers presented their most important repertoire in monographic concerts at the Cine-Theatre Constantino Nery in Matosinhos, between April and July 2013. In addition, the OJM commissioned them new compositions, which was the first to shape and interpret.

Among these new suggestions of the composers, available on the album “Jazz Composers Forum”, are highlighted: “El Mauro”, by Pierre Bertrand, which includes remarkable solos of André Fernandes on the guitar and José Pedro Coelho on the saxophone; “Tiempo & Lugar” by Guillermo Klein, also with a solo particularly well performed by the trumpeter Susana Santos Silva; “Tremor” by Florian Ross, with a solo of the trumpeter Javier Pereiro; “Étude No. 2” by Ohad Talmor; and “All In (For Laurie Frink)” by Darcy James Argue.

In the coming years, the OJM wants to plan new editions of this forum in Matosinhos with new guests, maintaining the mission initiated more than 15 years ago by Pedro Guedes and Carlos Azevedo, which is the search and promotion of new music for big band.