Amadora, Lisbon, April 11, 2023 (Lusa) – North American musician John Scofield will make his solo debut in Portugal in May, as part of the 11th Amadora Jazz Festival, which also features the Silk Trio, Maria João & Carlos Bica.
The festival will take place from May 11th to 14th at Recreios da Amadora, Auditório de Alfornelos, also in the city of Amadora, and Cineteatro D. João V, in Damaia, announced the City Hall of Amadora, which organizes the event together with Jazz ao Centro Clube (JCC).
The American guitarist and composer John Scofield, 71, will perform solo, on May 12, at 21:00, at Recreios da Amadora.
John Scofield’s first solo recording took place last year, and the musician has already won three Grammys and recorded more than 40 records, according to the biography available on the Casa da Música website, where he has performed several times over the past decades.
“Scofield himself states that, until recently, he ‘avoided playing solo concerts’, not considering the solo guitar ‘the ideal platform for improvisation’. Nevertheless, he admits that ‘after 56 years of playing the guitar, he is finally interested in throwing himself into it on his own and exploring the possibilities,'” reads the statement from Amadora’s city hall.
The director of the JCC, José Miguel, highlights in a press release “the debut of the remarkable guitarist John Scofield as a solo performer in Portugal and the first presentation of the brand new record work of the quartet led by Maria João and Carlos Bica.
The reunion of Bica and Maria João will take place on May 13th at 9:00 pm at Recreios da Amadora, sharing the stage with João Farinha on piano and keyboards and Gonçalo Neto on guitar.
Regarding the other proposals, José Miguel pointed out that “they point to the present and future paths of this music”, highlighting the presentation of the debut work of guitarist Eugénia Contente, and “the confirmation of the talent of saxophonist Ricardo Toscano, the brilliant Silk Trio, Luke Stewart, which includes the superlative drummer Chad Taylor, and the inevitable presence of GeraJazz”.
The GeraJazz Orchestra will play on the 14th, at 5 pm, at the D. João V Cineteatro.
The project was born during the 2010/2011 season as part of the Orquestra Geração, under the artistic direction of conductor Eduardo Lála. Gerajazz “has developed an intense work of training young people with the aim of forming a jazz orchestra,” said the organization in the same statement.
Eugénia Contente will perform on May 13 at 6 p.m. at the Alfornelos Auditorium, with Gabriel Silva on electric bass and Luís Delgado on drums.
The Silk Trio of bassist Luke Stewart, with saxophonist Brian Settles and drummer Chad Taylor, will perform on May 12 at 11:00 p.m. in the main hall of Recreios da Amadora.
Saxophonist Ricardo Toscano’s trio, formed by Romeu Tristão on double bass and João Lopes Pereira on drums, opens the festival on May 11, at 21:00, at Recreios da Amadora.
