Santa Casa Jazz Fest

Born in Lisbon, composer-pianist João Paulo Esteves da Silva has worked in the most varied contexts, including jazz, classical music, traditional music, fado, free improvisation, and rock. Once a concert performer, key collaborator of some of the leading singer-songwriters of Portuguese popular music and one of the most important composers of so-called Portuguese jazz, he would later adopt spontaneous composition as his creative practice of choice. He is also a prolific songwriter and has composed some chamber music.

His early work was described as “an entirely new and astonishingly fresh approach to creative improvised music”, as well as “an authentic record of his native voice”, while his more recent forays into trio formats were highlighted for their “distinct aesthetic, beyond minimalism, ambient and ECM”. As a pianist, he has been described as “an extremely inventive and eloquent instrumentalist” who always places his “splendid technique […] at the service of a deeply rooted spiritual depth.”

Beyond music, he is a poet and translator, having published almost as many books as records.

Amaro Freitas, the renowned Brazilian pianist and one of the leading names in jazz today, performs in trio with Sidiel Vieira on double bass and Rodrigo Braz on drums. Together they take a sonic journey through pieces from his albums “Sangue Negro”, “Rasif” and “Sankofa”, as well as his most recent solo record Y’Y, whose pieces are reinterpreted here for the trio format. Y’Y received attention in the specialised press worldwide, including the New York Times, which refers to the artist as a composer taking jazz to new places.

The concert is a borderless musical flow that naturally connects the diasporas of Afro-Brazilian culture to the vanguard of jazz; there is space for a solo moment, in which Amaro Freitas works new textures inspired by John Cage’s piano and the landmark work of percussionist Naná Vasconcellos.

Live, Amaro Freitas offers a unique musical and emotional experience, inspired by the sounds of nature and all the Brazilian spirit of his piano trio.

He began his musical studies at the age of 4 at the Centro de Estudos Gregorianos de Lisboa. Later at the Academia de Amadores de Música he studied double bass with Fernando Flores and Composition with Pedro Rocha. He attended double bass courses with Ludwig Streicher and won 1st prize for double bass in 1988 at the Concurso Jovens Músicos.

From an early age he also took an interest in Jazz, studying at the Escola do Hot Clube de Portugal. His diverse training allowed him to work across various areas of music in the most varied musical contexts, including names such as: Pedro Caldeira Cabral, Miguel Amaral, Musicamera, Sete Lágrimas, Susana Franco, Beatriz Nunes, Camané, Carminho, Vitorino, Uxia, José Manuel Barreto, Filipa Pais, Bernardo Sassetti, Mário Laginha, João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Luís Barrigas, Luís Figueiredo, António Pinho Vargas, Sérgio Pelágio, Gonçalo Sousa, Pedro Moreira, Tomás Marques, Tomás Pimentel, Maria João, Tommy Halferty, Ralph Peterson Jr., Myra Melford, Jarmo Savolainen, Markku Ounaskari, Jon Irabagon, Peter Epstein, David Binney, Ralph Towner, Andy Sheppard, Paolo Fresu, Samuel Rohrer…

Mário Franco released his debut album under his own name in 2006 on TOAP Records, “This Life”, which All About Jazz magazine considered the second best album of that year.

Alongside music, Mário Franco is principal dancer of the Companhia Nacional de Bailado. In that capacity he has been invited to teach ballet classes and to serve as jury in dance competitions at various schools and institutions across the country. Mário Franco is also a musician and composer. He composes for Cinema, Theatre and Dance, having worked with choreographers/dancers such as: Francisco Camacho, Carlota Lagido, Xavier Carmo, Henriett Ventura, Rui Lopes Graça, Fernando Duarte, Carlos Pinillos, Filipa de Castro, Alina Lagoas, Claúdia Nóvoa, Rui Horta…

He has also undertaken choreographic work in different formats, such as video-dance projects.

From an early age she showed great interest in the arts, especially dance, with which she developed a special affinity due to her parents, dancers with the Companhia Nacional de Bailado since 1985.

She took part in productions such as “O Quebra-nozes” and “Dama das Camélias”, in 2004 and 2005, invited by Mehmet Balkan, then director of the CNB. She began classical piano lessons at age 12 with Adeline Esteves da Silva. At 15 she began her path in jazz, taking private lessons with the singer Rita Maria and, in the same year, enrolled at the Escola de Jazz Luís Villas-Boas, where she completed the regular four-year course in jazz vocals.

She also complemented her studies with two years of jazz piano as a second instrument in the 3rd and 4th years of the course, with teacher Margarida Campelo. In 2018 she entered the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, with teachers such as Maria João and João Paulo Esteves da Silva, among many other prominent musicians in Portugal. She completed her degree in 2021 with a final mark of 20 in her instrument recital. In 2021 she began her Master’s in Music studies, also at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa. She has played and collaborated with both national and international musicians and artists, such as Gonçalo Sousa, Nuno da Rocha, Sérgio Pelágio, Mariana Dionísio, Rosanna Helena Bach and Tupac Martir, among others.

In 2024 she released her first album as bandleader, “Imagem”, in quintet format, highlighted by Nuno Catarino, critic at jazz.pt, as one of the best choices of 2024.

Vasco Rosado Pimentel, Portuguese pianist, son of Delfina Pimentel, music teacher, and Paulo Lamas Pimentel, renowned piano tuner and technician, showed an interest in music from an early age.

At the age of four he began learning piano with teacher Lilia Rakova. At ten he entered the Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa, where he completed the 8th grade of classical piano with teacher Martin Gerhardt. Alongside classical piano studies, he studied percussion at the Escola da Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa and drums at the Escola de Jazz Luiz Villas Boas. At 14 he took an interest in jazz and had as teachers the pianists Paula Sousa, Dan Hewson and Ana Araújo. He took the piano course at the Escola de Jazz Luiz Villas-Boas with pianist and teacher Óscar Graça.

In 2019 he completed his academic path — undergraduate degree and Master’s — in jazz piano at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa with pianist João Paulo Esteves da Silva. He took part in several jazz workshops in Portugal and Spain where he had the opportunity to study with Aaron Goldberg, Jorge Rossy, Jeff Ballard, Michael Kanan, Ben Street, among others. He has performed with various Jazz and World Music ensembles, having played at important festivals such as “EDP Cool Jazz” and “Dias da Música” at the CCB, with his most recent projects Vasco Pimentel Trio and the duo Jugalbandish — piano and tablas — with Niraj Singh. As sideman he recorded Inês Pimenta’s “Son of Daedalus” (2018), Gonçalo Sousa’s “Nova Construção” (2019), and “Imagem” (2024) by Filipa Franco, among others. He is the pianist of other projects and bands such as FARPA, Trëma, Francisco Nogueira Quinteto and Rhythm Notes Quartet.

Ricardo Toscano and Víctor Zamora come together on stage for a musical encounter of rare intensity, where jazz converses with Afro-Cuban roots and the freedom of improvisation. The Portuguese saxophonist, known for his expressive and inventive language, finds in the Cuban pianist — virtuosic and deeply rooted in the rhythmic traditions of his homeland — an ideal partner to explore new sonic territories.

In this intimate format, the duo builds dynamic soundscapes that alternate between moments of delicate lyricism and bursts of rhythmic energy. The interaction between them is marked by complicity, risk and creativity, giving rise to unique interpretations that reinvent themselves at each concert.

A vibrant and sophisticated proposition, where tradition and modernity intersect, inviting the audience to an engaging and unpredictable experience.