For the first time, the Festival, curated by Pedro Costa and running from May 15 to 17, features a guest country, Italy. Since its inception, the Festival has seen a growth in audience numbers.
“We can say that there has been a gradual increase in audiences, fulfilling one of the Festival’s missions to create new audiences,” stated a source from the organization. “In the first edition, we had about 1,000 people in attendance, and in the second, nearly 2,000.”
This year’s festival takes place at the Campus of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL) in Campolide, Lisbon, and features not only concerts but also the presentation of a book, masterclasses, and debates. These events aim to “explore the link between the culture of innovation and the inherent curiosity of the university with experimentation in artistic practice,” as noted in a statement by Clara Rowland, UNL’s Pro-Rector for Culture.
Regarding the guest country, Pedro Costa highlights the Italian jazz tradition since the 1960s, noting that “Italian jazz continues to be a very active part of European jazz in the new millennium.”
“In a new generation of European exchanges, Italy has numerous notable representatives, some of whom are featured at Festival Causa Efeito, such as Giuseppe Doronzo and Pasquale Caló, often guests or catalysts in the most interesting new jazz scene in Europe,” the curator emphasized. He added, “Paolo Angeli is the most senior figure of this generation, with a rich history, not only in modernizing the original guitar and singing from Sardinia but also as an improviser alongside names like Hamid Drake, Evan Parker, Ned Rothenberg, or Fred Frith.”
The opening day of the Festival features two national premieres: the Norwegian-Danish trio and the Greek-Italian trio, Futuro Ancestrale.
The event kicks off on May 15, with a roundtable on Italian jazz at the UNL Rectorate’s foyer, followed by a performance in the garage by a trio featuring Amalie Dahl (alto saxophone), Jomar Jeppsson Søvik (drums), and Henrik Sandstad Dalen (double bass), an improvisational music trio based in Oslo.
This trio specializes in free jazz, “noise,” and avant-garde music. Their debut album, ‘Fairytales for daydreamers,’ recorded live, was released in March 2023.
The first day concludes with a performance by the group led by Giuseppe Doronzo, Futuro Ancestrale, an electro-acoustic project founded in 2022, featuring Doronzo (baritone saxophone, neyanban bagpipes, and hulusi), Yannis Kyriakides (live electronics), and Frank Rosaly (drums and percussion).
On May 16, the festival highlights include world premieres, a commission by the Festival, and Old Mountain, an Argentine-Portuguese combo consisting of Pedro Branco on piano, João Sousa on drums, Camila Nebbia on tenor saxophone, Hernâni Faustino and Drew Gress on double basses. According to the organization, this project by musicians Pedro Branco, transitioning to piano after experimenting with guitar, and João Sousa, is “one of the most fascinating jazz projects created in Portugal.”
The second day begins with an open rehearsal in the Rectorate’s auditorium with Italian tenor saxophonist Pasquale Caló and Portuguese pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro, described by the organization as “perhaps the most gifted pianist of free improvisation in Portugal.” Together with Hernâni Faustino and Gabriel Ferrandini, they form the RED Trio, noted for contemporary improvisation.
This is followed by a national premiere by Norwegian guitarist, improviser, and composer Inga Stenøien in the auditorium. The evening concludes with the world premiere of ‘Old Mountain’ and the Festival’s commissioned premiere featuring Pasquale Caló and Rodrigo Pinheiro.
The final day begins in the Rectorate’s foyer with writer Daniel Spicer presenting his book ‘Peter Brötzmann: Free-Jazz, Revolution and the Politics of Improvisation,’ exploring the life and music of the German saxophonist (1941-2023) and the social and political context in which his work evolved.
This is followed by three more festival premieres: Paolo Angeli (prepared Sardinian guitar) performs in the auditorium, preceding a performance featuring Portuguese alto saxophonist José Soares and British pianist Kit Downes, resulting from a chance meeting between the two musicians in Amsterdam.
The Festival concludes with another commissioned premiere, the project ‘Sprotch,’ created for this edition by the quartet Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), Michael Formanek (double bass), Yedo Gibson (tenor and soprano saxophones), and Alfred Wammer (trombone).
