A contemporary jazz project by four Portuguese musicians
Cláudio Alves, guitar
João Ferreira, keys
Hugo Santos, (d) bass
Maximiliano Llanos, drums
The group has been working together since 2014, developing original compositions without any stylistic barriers, having improvisation as a common and constant element in the performances of their themes.
They have performed in different venues and festivals such as Cantaloupe Café (Olhão-Portugal), Jazz in the Garden (VRSA - Portugal), Caldas Nice Jazz (Caldas da Rainha - Portugal), Festival Nazionale dei Conservatori (Frozinone - Italy), Café Tati (Lisbon - Portugal), XI Jazz Iberia (Badajós - Spain), Armazém 8 (Évora - Portugal), Sala Milwaukee (Cádiz - Spain), Museu do Traje (Jazz at the Museu de Traje de S. Brás), Festival de Trebujena ( Trebujena - Spain), Camões Auditorium for the national radio Antena 2 (Lisbon - Portugal), Clarence Jazz Club (Málaga - Spain), etc.
Cláudio Alves, guitar
João Ferreira, keys
Hugo Santos, (d) bass
Maximiliano Llanos, drums
The group has been working together since 2014, developing original compositions without any stylistic barriers, having improvisation as a common and constant element in the performances of their themes.
They have performed in different venues and festivals such as Cantaloupe Café (Olhão-Portugal), Jazz in the Garden (VRSA - Portugal), Caldas Nice Jazz (Caldas da Rainha - Portugal), Festival Nazionale dei Conservatori (Frozinone - Italy), Café Tati (Lisbon - Portugal), XI Jazz Iberia (Badajós - Spain), Armazém 8 (Évora - Portugal), Sala Milwaukee (Cádiz - Spain), Museu do Traje (Jazz at the Museu de Traje de S. Brás), Festival de Trebujena ( Trebujena - Spain), Camões Auditorium for the national radio Antena 2 (Lisbon - Portugal), Clarence Jazz Club (Málaga - Spain), etc.
In 2023 they invited Tiago Vigia on the saxophone and Leon Baldesberger on the trumpet, and started developing the Hexa Project, enriching the chosen pieces from the first three studio albums with new sonorities and arrangements for the sextet. The group is preparing a studio recording of their fourth album in the forthcoming months.
Cântico (2022)
Cântico is the groups's third studio album, recorded at Canoa Studios. It is supported by Antena 2, a portuguese national broadcaster, and is part of the catalog of the publisher AsUR music.
It includes nine songs made by the collective with the exception of one of the tracks which is an arrangement of the traditional song of the northern region of Croatia called Vehni, Vehni Fijolica. The group invited singer Marta Fiolić, whose interpretation highlighted the melody and poetry of the original song.
The quartet's first two albums consisted only of instrumental music, here, in turn, there are three more vocal compositions - Warrior sung by Cláudio Alves with lyrics written by João Ferreira, Balada Rock where a section of voicings is performed by the band and guest musician Manuel Rocha. And finally, Cântico, the song that gives the album its name, a title that symbolizes the sound that the band sought - using simple, strong and singable melodies in order to connect different musical traditions.
Travellers (2019)
The pieces composed for the second album Travellers bring a sincere musical maturity. Some characteristics of the styles such as Drum n' Bass and Rock can be found in the interpretation of the musical pieces, making the album a rich effusion of influences.
Nebuchadnezzar (2015)
The album Nebuchadnezzar was recorded in February 2015 at Fábrica do Braço de Prata in Lisbon. Nebuchadnezzar is also one of the themes of a total of six tracks that make up the first album of originals, a theme that was inspired by the movie “Matrix”, just as Monkeys was inspired by a documentary entitled “Woman raised by the monkeys”.
Our music is a lot of things. There is freedom as a group. We are willing to explore the most diverse timbres and textures.