“Three days, two spaces, seven concerts, a round table, a celebration that begins now. 2023 is the year in which 75 years of Hot Clube are celebrated”, reads a statement about the Hot Clube de Portugal Jazz Festival.
The oldest active European jazz club was officially founded on March 19, 1948, when Luiz Villas-Boas, music lover and its founder, filled out membership form number one - a form that remains in the institution's heritage.
Alongside the club and the Luiz Villas-Boas Jazz School, part of 'Hot's' work also involves the museological nucleus, based mainly on the estate left by the founder, who died in 1999.
Today, the festival takes place at Teatro da Comuna with a performance by the trio Lokomotiv, bassist Carlos Barretto, guitarist Mário Delgado and drummer José Salgueiro, and with a 'jam session' by the trio of pianist Hugo Lobo, accompanied by bassist Romeu Tristão and drummer Gabriel Moraes.
On Saturday, also at Teatro da Comuna, the program includes a performance by Combos from the Luiz Vilas-Boas School of Jazz, a round table of “reflection on 'The teaching of jazz in Portugal'”, a concert by bassist Zé Eduardo with pianist João Paulo Esteves da Silva, and the presentation of “Mingus Project” by bassist Nelson Cascais.
The 'jam session' on Saturday is in charge of the pianist Filipe Melo's trio.
On Sunday, Hot Clube's anniversary, the festival moves to Forum Lisboa, where there will be a concert by the Orquestra e Sexteto do 'Hot', in which “the two main resident formations of the Clube will present a program composed of important compositions that were recorded in that founding year [1948]”.
Daily tickets for the festival, costing 10 euros, will be on sale at the concert venues on the same day, but tickets for Forum Lisbon are also available for advance sale via email silviamoreira@hcp.pt.
The concerts by Combos, the round table and the performance by Zé Eduardo and João Paulo Esteves da Silva, all on Saturday, are free of charge. Admission is also free for Hot Clube Portugal members, but will be “subject to room capacity”.
The Hot Clube de Portugal has operated in Praça da Alegria, in Lisbon, since its foundation, first in number 39, a building that burned down in 2009, and then moved to number 48, which was closed in January, by order city council, justified by “structural issues” of the building.
Meanwhile, the Lisbon City Council undertook to find a provisional address for the installation of the 'Hot' until March 19, according to the chairman of the club's General Assembly, Inês Homem Cunha, in statements to Lusa on January 13.