Jazz lovers will have the opportunity to enjoy the best of this music style during the 17th edition of the Loulé International Jazz Festival at Cerca do Convento Espírito Santo from July 28 to 30.
Under the musical direction of well known Portuguese piano jazz artist Mário Laginha, the festival will start on July 28 with a performance by Maria João and the Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos.
Maria João is known for her vocal flexibility and improvisational skills. Her music incorporates an eclectic mix of various folk, ethnic musics, modern jazz, and the avant-garde.
She has worked with many topline musicians throughout her career, including Manu Katche, Trilok Gurtu, Bobby McFerrin, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Joe Zawinul and Kai Eckhardt.
On July 29 the Richard Galliano Group will take to the stage.
Richard Galliano, in a bid to expand his ideas on the accordion, began listening to jazz and heard on records the great trumpet player Clifford Brown.
He is an exceptionally versatile musician, able to make his mark in all kinds of musical contexts.
He continues to explore a vast range of music, without ever losing that lyrical quality that infuses the ballads on Love Day that he recorded with Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Charlie Haden and Mino Cinelu, or the French Touch which allowed him to make the link between Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf, with the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.
The Aaron Parks Quartet will close the festival on July 30.
With his technically involved yet boundlessly melodic and sensitive playing, and with the sense of colour and imagination he conveys in every musical situation, Parks is setting a new standard for jazz piano expression.
Aaron Parks can be heard on the soundtracks to Their Eyes Were Watching God and Spike Lee films including Inside Man, She Hate Me, and When the Levees Broke.
All concerts will start at 10pm.
For more information about the festival, please call 289 415 860 or 939 488 167.
