Bernardo Moreira, João Moreira, João Mortágua, Bernardo Couto, André Santos, Luís Cunha, Desidério Lázaro, Bernardo Tinoco, and Diogo Alexandre are among the performers featured in “Cantomilo”, an album conceived during the pandemic, influenced by pianist Filipe Melo.
“The record emerged at the start of my degree in jazz piano, greatly encouraged by Filipe Melo—both the record and my foray into the world of composition,” Estela Alexandre explained.
In her first year at the Lisbon Superior School of Music, the pianist and professor challenged her to compose an original piece. From there, “amid the pandemic,” the album began to take shape at a distance, “with individual and home recordings.”
“I think by the second or third piece, he suggested, ‘Why not make this a record?’ At the time it seemed crazy to me. I hadn’t planned any of this, nor this start in composition, much less an album,” she acknowledged.
Nonetheless, an album materialized, “marked by several peculiarities because it was born during the pandemic, and we wanted to preserve the way things happened.”
“Cantomilo” includes pandemic recordings, some captured on mobile phones—”just remastered”—as well as collaborative work by the orchestra, which recorded in the studio in September 2024: “This evolution is noticeable, not only in the compositions—which I believe improved—but also in the recording quality, which got better.”
This evolution makes Estela Alexandre’s first record somewhat of a “documentary work,” capturing the progress in both composition and performance, from early exercises to the final outcome.
Assembling fifty musicians for an album unfolded naturally. “I gradually identified the musicians I was specifically searching for,” both artistically and personally: “The focus was on inviting musicians I admired musically but above all, especially when we started working in person, inviting individuals admired for qualities beyond musicianship.”
Estela Alexandre emphasizes the human connection among participants, which “is crucial for the music to have a different impact.”
“There’s a unique dedication in the music, and I believe that reflects in the music,” she emphasized.
Despite bringing together established and emerging talents in national jazz, the founding of her ensemble named the Estela Alexandre Orquestra this year at the first Oeiras International Jazz Festival, and her wins in the past two editions of the Leiria International Composition Competition in the jazz category, the artist refrains from labeling “Cantomilo” as a jazz album.
“I’m not sure if my music is jazz, but it certainly has some influence,” owing to her education and journey, she acknowledged. “But I often doubted if jazz was my path,” she added.
In this debut, the compositions reflect a connection with jazz but also a penchant for soundtracks. “In some way, I try to portray certain images, though it’s not a conscious endeavor.”
A testament to the aesthetic variety, “Cantomilo” features an arrangement of “Coisas” by Ornatos Violeta, a tribute to Portuguese music and Carlos Paredes, and a rendition of “Strange Fruit,” the 1930s song popularized by Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, highlighting the lynchings of Black citizens in the U.S. by the Ku Klux Klan.
The album derives its name from the small locality where the composer spent the pandemic, in Leiria, set for release on May 9.
The showcase concert, performed by the Estela Alexandre Orquestra, is scheduled for May 11 at the José Lúcio da Silva Theatre in Leiria, the composer’s hometown.
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