Jazz Music arrived in Portugal in the early 70s

Nobody knows exactly when jazz first arrived in Portugal, but what we do know is who was the first person to promote it in Portugal. That person was Villas Boas (1924-1999). Villas was a very good jazz listener and a friend of many North American musicians including fellow promoters such as George Wein. Villas Boas was the first portuguese person to host a jazz radio show on local radio in Portugal and he also founded one of the first European jazz clubs in 1948 - Hot Clube de Portugal.

In 1966, the Charles Lloyd Quartet played with Jarrett, McBee and DeJohnnette in the portuguese TV show “Jazz no Estudio A” hosted by jazz drummer Jorge Veloso.

A jazz club aimed at students from local universities existed in Lisbon from 1958-1961 but was shut down by the police due to political reasons. This jazz club booked not only national acts but also international acts, such as Claude Luter, Perry Robinson, Jon Mayer and Chuck Israels.

1971 was an important year for jazz in Portugal. That year, Cascais, a small city by the Atlantic Ocean near Lisbon, had its first jazz festival which included performances by Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Stitt, Al McKibbon, Kay Winding, Miles Davis group, Ornette Coleman, Dexter Gordon and many others. Charlie Haden also performed at this festival and was arrested by the police because he dedicated his tune called “Song for Che” to “the Black Liberation Movements of Angola, Mocambique and Guine”. This dedication got a standing ovation of 12.000 people. Colonial war was still going on at the time.

Cascais Jazz Festival lasted until the 80s and other festivals started to run in other cities such as Porto, Guimaraes, Braga, Estoril, Azores, Madeira, Loule, Coimbra and Lisboa.

The live jazz music scene in Portugal is very strong nowadays and it includes young portuguese musicians who are internationally acclaimed such as Esteves da Silva (piano), Maria Joao (voice), Nuno Ferreira (guitar), Luis Candeias (drums), Ricardo Toscano (saxofone), Susana Santos Silva (trumpet) and Carlos Barretto (double bass).

On the other hand, when it comes to mass media, jazz is not as existent as it should be. Portuguese radio has “Cinco Minutos de Jazz” (“Five Minutes of Jazz) – a daily jazz radio show that has been on air since 1966; and since January 2017, “Jazzin’ “ – an online radio station at RTP. Other than these, there is no real broadcasting of Jazz. The presence of jazz in portuguese TV, is even less prominent than its presence in radio. The amount of advertising that a jazz show gets compared to what a pop/rock show gets, is disgraceful. The last jazz TV show took place 16 years ago and it was a one hour weekly show called “Jazz a Preto e Branco” (“Black and White Jazz”), this was aired on RTP, proving once more how much other channels ignore jazz music. When it comes to books, the late Lima Barretto was pop – not popular – but didn’t sell a great deal and Duarte has 6 books published one of them called “Poezz” (jazz on poetry written in Portuguese) – which are all of them sold out. There are a couple of more writers on jazz in Portugal but there are no jazz magazines published in Portugal.

The LP “Estilhacos”, already on CD, was the first jazz record produced in Portugal – a recording of a live concert in Lisbon of the Steve Lacy/Steve Potts Quintet on February 29th, 1972.

When it comes to jazz clubs, there is “Hot Clube de Portugal” in Lisbon where historic concerts took place - Dexter Gordon, Charlie Mariano, Steve Potts, Frank Wright, Count Basie, Noah Howard, Benny Golson and many more. And another jazz club ‘Salao Brasil’ in Coimbra. Two clubs for a population of 10 million is not great for portuguese jazz musicians...

There are a few good portuguese jazz big bands that are successful in Portugal and abroad – the big bands of Matosinhos, Nazare, Algarve, “Hot Clube de Portugal”, the “Lisbon Underground Music Ensemble – L.U.M.E” and “Tora Tora”.

 ‘Porta Jazz’ is a good jazz label mainly dedicated to jazz from musicians that live in Porto (Oporto) with jazz scene that concentrate the majority of portuguese jazzmen.  

“Clean Feed” is a contemporary jazz label that is quite successful internationally. It releases music by European, American and Portuguese musicians such as the young unforgettable late artist/composer/piano player Bernardo Sassetti.

Jazz in Portugal is almost at the same level as any other European country. However, as we can conclude, it has yet to grow on many levels. The jazz audience in Portugal fills the venues but is unaware of all the obstacles that Jazz has yet to overcome in this country.

Portugal exists since the 12th century with the same frontiers and is always sunny and a beautiful place where people has a lot of life experience and is cool and polite.

After Africa and South America and Asia, Portuguese found Black North-American Music, the so called jazz.

joseduarte@ua.pt

october 2017