Kurt Elling closes the 35th Guimarães Jazz. Four of its big nights come to €52.50
Guimarães Jazz runs 12 to 21 November at Centro Cultural Vila Flor: Toninho Horta with the Guimarães Orchestra opens, ARTEMIS, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Peter Evans fill the middle, and Kurt Elling sings with North Macedonia's National Jazz Orchestra on the last night. Tickets €10 to €20, with bundles up to 30% off.
Guimarães Jazz reaches its 35th edition in the shape regulars know well: two back-to-back weeks in November, nearly everything at Centro Cultural Vila Flor, and a bill that puts big American names next to Portugal’s own jazz schools. This year it runs from 12 to 21 November, with 12 concerts plus late-night jam sessions and workshops.
Week one
It opens on Thursday 12 with Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta and his quartet alongside the Guimarães Orchestra, at 9.30pm in the Grand Auditorium. On Friday pianist Pedro Emanuel Pereira brings Beyond Miles.
Saturday 14 is the busiest day. The João Tavares Quintet plays at 4pm, the Rempis/Adasiewicz/Corsano Trio at 6pm, and the evening belongs to ARTEMIS, the all-women supergroup that is one of the strongest draws on the bill. Sunday wraps the week with the ESMAE Jazz Orchestra under the Lex Korten Quintet at 5pm, then Filigrana, from Miguel Meirinhos and Joana BC, at 9.30pm in the CIAJG Black Box.
Week two
After three nights without a concert (the workshops start on the 17th), the music returns on 19 November with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel’s quintet. Trumpeter Peter Evans and his Being & Becoming quartet follow on Friday 20.
Saturday 21 pairs the Sonoscopia project with the Reijseger/Fraanje/Sylla trio at 4pm and the Lex Korten Quintet at 6pm before the 9.30pm finale. The closing concert with Kurt Elling puts the Grammy-winning Chicago singer in front of the newly formed National Jazz Orchestra of North Macedonia for a set of standards. Elling last played Guimarães in 2008.
What it costs
The opening night, Kurt Rosenwinkel and the Elling finale are €20 each (€15 with concessions). ARTEMIS and Peter Evans are €15, and the Rempis/Adasiewicz/Corsano trio in the Small Auditorium is €10. There’s no single festival pass, but there are bundles: 10% off two shows, 20% off three, 30% off four. Take Toninho Horta, ARTEMIS, Rosenwinkel and Elling on the four-show bundle and you pay €52.50 instead of €75.
The full programme is on the CCVF site, including the “Body and Soul” exhibition on the people who brought jazz to Portugal, which opens in the foyer at 6pm on the 12th.
If November is starting to feel like jazz month, that’s because it is: the Misty Fest is touring the country with 35 shows at the same time.
Image: John Abbott / Centro Cultural Vila Flor
