Entre abril e julho de 2013, o Cine-teatro Constantino Nery recebeu o ciclo Jazz Composers Forum programado pela Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos. Oito concertos centrados em oito importantes criadores contemporâneos de música para orquestra de jazz, confrontando as personalidades musicais de quatro americanos e quatro europeus. Tendo também interpretado temas inéditos destes oito criadores, agora editados em CD “Jazz Composers Fórum - today’s european-american big band writing” e com apresentação no próximo dia 29 de março neste cine-teatro. Oferta do disco na compra do bilhete.

Presentation of the album “Jazz Composers Forum - today's european-american big band writing” in the prestigious Voll-Damm International Jazz Festival of Barcelona. This edition results from the Jazz Composers Forum cycle, held between April and July 2013, in the Cine-theatre Constantino Nery. It brings together eight commissions of OJM to four American composers: Steven Bernstein (USA), Darcy James Argue (Canada), Ohad Talmor (Switzerland/USA) and Guillermo Klein (Argentina) and to four European composers: Julien Argüelles (UK), Florian Ross (Germany), Pierre Bertrand (France) and Frank Vaganée (Belgium).

Born in 1975 in Vancouver, Darcy James Argue was the youngest composer presented by Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos in this concert series. He started playing trumpet at the jazz band of the school and studied jazz piano at McGill University. He graduated from the New England Conservatory with Bob Brookmeyer. His ensemble of 18 elements, Secret Society, based in Brooklyn and with two albums nominated for the GRAMMY, was the project that gave him more prominence as a composer.

The orchestra’s sound combines the energy of rock and pop with the sophistication of traditional composition. “Infernal Machines” was the debut album, and gave Argue the Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize of the BMI Foundation and the Hagood Hardy Award of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. The second album of the orchestra, “Brooklyn Babylon” was released in 2012 and mixes progressive jazz, popular music of the Balkans, dance-punk and experimental indie rock, and also waltzes, marches and fair carousel music.

Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and Maria Schneider, as well as Radiohead, Steve Reich and Charles Mingus, are among his influences. He is one of the busiest jazz composers; he has received commissions from the Danish Radio Big Band, Hard Rubber Orchestra, West Point Jazz Knights, Jazz Gallery, Manhattan New Music Project and Jerome Foundation.

Frank Vaganée was born in 1966 in Mechelen and is one of the most outstanding soloists in Belgium. At the age of 20 his name was already associated with numerous projects he led and for which he composed and created arrangements. He extended his activity to large ensembles, collaborating as a saxophonist with the jazz orchestra of Flemish radio and television (BRT) and representing Belgium in the big band of the European Broadcasting Union.

Charlie Parker, Ornett Coleman and Lennie Tristano are among his influences. In 1991, he was nominated by the press as the most important jazz talent of Belgium; in 1993 he won the CERA Jeugd en Muziek Prijs; in 1994, he was awarded the Prix Nicolas d'Or with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra and in 2001, the Django d'Or. In 2011, he received an important distinction from Mechelen, his hometown.

The project which gave him more visibility was the Brussels Jazz Orchestra (BJO), which he founded in 1993 with Serge Plume and Marc Godfroid, and of which he is the artistic director. At the BJO, he collaborated with emblematic Belgian composers, such as Bert Joris, Michel Herr and Philip Catherine, and with international legends, such as Dave Liebman, Phil Woods, Kenny Wheeler, Maria Schneider, Richard Galliano and Kenny Werner, among many others.

Considered the best European big band by critics of the Down Beat magazine, the album of the orchestra that best reflects the Vaganée composition is “Countermove” (2006), which is devoted entirely to his musical creations for big band. In 2011, he played the music of Ludovic Bource in the big band parts for the French black-and-white silent film “The Artist”, whose soundtrack was awarded with an Oscar by the Academy Awards.

Steven Bernstein é um dos artistas mais originais do jazz norte-americano das últimas décadas. Nascido em 1961, toca trompete de vara, e também o mais comum trompete de pistões. Em 1995 criou a banda Sexmob, com a qual tocava essencialmente originais, até se ter apercebido que teria mais sucesso a conquistar o público se apresentasse músicas populares. A partir daí, passou a explorar canções de Prince, Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones e Nirvana. Trazer um novo universo estilístico a temas conhecidos da época foi também o método que tornou célebres artistas marcantes da história do jazz como Charlie Parker, Lester Young e Miles Davies. Na Millennial Territory Orchestra, dirigida por si, Bernstein procura pérolas perdidas entre o jazz dos anos 20 e 30, utilizando paralelamente temas de Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder e Beatles. A improvisação, o imprevisto e a comunicação em palco são pontos fulcrais na sua performance.

Tem gravado em nome próprio para o ciclo “Radical Jewish Culture Series”, e é um compositor conhecido também pelas partituras para dança, teatro e cinema. A sua primeira banda sonora foi para “Kansas City” (1996), de Robert Altman. Realizou arranjos para músicos como Bill Frisell, Marianne Faithfull e Elton John. Como membro da banda de Levon Helm, escreveu os arranjos para o disco “Electric Dirt”, de 2009, premiado com um Grammy. Uma das suas gravações mais recentes é “Sexmob plays Fellini” (2013).

Tem tocado com grandes nomes da música jazz, e não só, como Don Byron, Roswell Rudd e Sam Rivers, Aretha Franklin, Lou Reed, Sting, The Lounge Lizards e Spanish Fly.

The multifaceted Pierre Bertrand has established himself as one of the most active and inventive creators of French jazz. Bertrand was born in Cagner-sur-Mer, in 1972. He graduated at the Conservatories of Nice and Paris. He is considered especially a saxophonist and flutist, but also remarkable is his work as composer and leader of large musical formations.

In the concert of Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos dedicated to the composer, his compositions for the main French formation of this kind, the Paris Jazz Big Band, which he founded in 1998 with the trumpeter Nicolas Folmer, were presented. In this formation he found his way for his innovative, sophisticated and accessible music, influenced by various styles. Examples of this are the albums “Mediterranéo” (2002), “Paris 24” (2004) and “Source(s)” (2012). Bertrand is also a member of the Nice Jazz Orchestra, founded in 2008 and which he directs. In 2009, he released “Caja Negra”, an album in his own name that established him as a complete and experienced artist, with contributions from musicians who recently formed the group “La Caja Negra”.

He received many commissions, such as: from the city of Nancy, the Orchestre Imaginaire in Nancy, the Orchestre Lamoureux, the festivals Jazz au fil de l'Oise and Jazz à Vienne. He composed a concert for saxophone for Claude Delangle, premiered by the Orchestra of the French Air Force. He prepared arrangements for Claude Nougaro, Charles Aznavour, Lio, Pascal Obispo, Murray Head, Holiday On Ice, Nikos Aliagas, Demi Evans, Juan Carmona, Enrico Macias and for the piece of musical theatre “Piaf”. The soundtracks are also an important part of his musical career, with special highlight for the film “La grande vie” (2009), by Emmanuel Salinger.

Guillermo Klein is one of the most singular composers, with a unique rhythmic approach that arises from the traditional Argentinean rhythms and explores challenging metrics. His compositions have been devoutly played by musicians, and gave him prestige in the jazz community, although little commercial success. Klein was born in Buenos Aires, in 1970. He discovered the musical vocation at the elementary school and studied guitar and piano. He played rock guitar, and was excluded from the conservatory for having reading difficulties. He studied composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and completed his studies in 1994. He taught composition in the Basque Country, and more recently at Musikene, the Higher School of Music of that country.

In the 90s, Klein won the appreciation of top New York musicians during the period in which he featured himself regularly in the city's clubs until he left New York, in 2000. Since then, he has been living in Argentina and in Barcelona, ​​but he returns periodically to New York to present the music composed for his ensemble, Los Guachos. This formation includes names such as Jeff Ballard on the drums, Chris Cheek on the saxophone, Ben Monder on the guitar and Miguel Zenón on the saxophone.

Bartók, Ginastera, Bach, Duke Ellington and Wayne Shorter are among his main influences and are reflected in one of his latest album, “Carrera” (2012), in which there are arrangements on Argentine classical music, tango and metric challenges of complex performance.

Florian Ross was born in 1972 in Pforzheim. He studied composition in Cologne, London and New York with John Taylor, Joachim Ullrich, Bill Dobbins, Don Friedman and Jim McNeely. He composed for groups such as the Metropole Orchestra and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. His contemporary and nonconformist style was readily revealed in his first album, “Seasons and Places” in 1998. In 2000, he leads the Florian Ross Brass Project, which crosses jazz with the sound of the traditional British bands of metals. He was awarded the Piano Jazz Prize at the Conservatory of Cologne (1993) and Composition Prizes of the BBC (for big band in 1996), Monaco (1997) and the hr-Bigband (1998), followed by the Prize Thad Jones of the Danish Radio Big Band (2000).

He has performed with musicians, such as Vince Mendoza, Bob Brookmeyer, Joachim Schönecker, Tommy Smith, Jim McNeely, Dave Liebman, Don Friedman, George Duke, John Scofield, Kenny Wheeler, Joe Lovano and Eric Vloeimans. He has concerts throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Five of his compositions were included in the “The European Real Book”. In 2006, he received the WDR Jazz Prize for composition.

Currently, he teaches piano and composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne and continues to create new compositions and arrangements for major groups, including the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra, Oktoposse, BMI Jazz Orchestra, Joe Lovano with the Dublin RTE, Contemporary Jazz Orchestra of Cologne, and also for various German national radio stations.

Ohad Talmor is a recurrent collaborator of Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, and is a multifaceted artist, composing and performing in various projects in the field of jazz, and writing music for classical music performers. He was raised in Switzerland and his parents are from Israeli. He studied in Geneva and later on in New York, where he settled in 1995 and was naturalized North American.

His music, simultaneously lyrical, complex and unpredictable, and the blues heritage he chose, made him currently a musician requested for numerous collaborations as an arranger and composer. Ohad Talmor composed a concert for piano, drums and two orchestras, premiered in 2010 by the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos, Jason Moran and Dan Weiss.

With the legendary Lee Konitz, he co-led three projects: Lee Konitz New Nonet, Konitz-Talmor String Project and Konitz-Talmot Big Band (with OJM). He played with renowned jazz figures, such as Steve Swallow, Joshua Redman, Fred Hersh, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Chris Cheek, Dave Douglas, Carla Bley, Joe Lovano, Chris Potter and Billy Hart, among others. He also composed for orchestras such as the Big Band of Lausanne, the Orquestra SoundScape do Brasil, the Brecker Brothers and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra.

The project by his own, Newsreel is a versatile group that reflects his musical identity. The Ensemble Mass Transformation is one more of his alternative projects, consisting of the overhaul of works such as the Eighth Symphony of Bruckner for five jazz musicians and a string quartet.

Julian Argüelles is one of the key figures of the last decades of British jazz, whether in small band format, in large orchestras or in solo recordings. His music, which is reflected by the relentless pursuit of innovation, combines the most diverse styles, from jazz, to pop, to dance music and world music.

The connection of Julian Argüelles to large ensembles began in his fourteens, when he went on tour with the Big Band of the European Community. In 1985, he joined the legendary British formation Loose Tubes. He was member of orchestras directed by renowned figures like Carla Bley, Kenny Wheeler and Django Bates. He integrated the hr-Bigband of the Frankfurt radio, a top formation with which he edited the album “Momenta” (2009), containing his compositions, which prove his unconventional approach to the big band. Given his originality as a composer, he received commissions from groups like the NDR Big Band, the Apollo Saxophone Quartet and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra.

In 1990, he released his first album, in collaboration with the pianist John Taylor. Early on, he also began to be a constant presence in the Portuguese stages, participating in Mário Laginha album in 1994. He played with prominent figures of the international jazz scene such as Tim Berne, Hermeto Pascoal, Steve Swallow, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Dave Liebman, Jim Black and Peter Erskine. He teaches at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Trinity College of Music in London and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Ensemble is the name of his octet, which has residence at the University of York.