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Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos

Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos is a non-profit institution that promotes creation, research, spread and training in the jazz field. Created in 1997, it has the support of the Municipality of Matosinhos since 1999 and it crosses international ambition with a sense of local responsibility. Continuously invests in the development of diversified artistic projects, coherent educational projects and in the recording of Portuguese jazz. A pioneer in a largely unexplored territory, OJM plays the role of the National Jazz Orchestra.

On October 5th, 2017, while celebrating its 20th anniversary, OJM was invited to participate in the commemorations of the 107th anniversary of the Proclamation of the Portuguese Republic, at the São Bento Palace in Lisbon. The Portuguese Prime-Minister and the Portuguese Culture Minister honoured the orchestra with the Medal for Cultural Merit.

The uniqueness of OJM is revealed in the versatility that allows it to play the role of a national jazz orchestra while performing repertoires of all aesthetic variants and ages of jazz. It has the artistic direction of Pedro Guedes and was co-directed with Carlos Azevedo until 2021. Collaborated with Maria Schneider, Carla Bley, Lee Konitz, John Hollenbeck, Jim McNeely, Kurt Rosenwinkel, João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Carlos Bica, Ingrid Jensen, Bob Berg, Conrad Herwig, Mark Turner, Rich Perry, Steve Swallow, Gary Valente, Dieter Glawischnig, Stephan Ashbury, Chris Cheek, Ohad Talmor, Joshua Redman, Andy Sheppard, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Fred Hersch, Rebecca Martin, Peter Evans, Fay Claassen, Kiko Freitas, Maria Rita, Maria João, Mayra Andrade, Manuela Azevedo, Sérgio Godinho, Manel Cruz, Mário Laginha and Rui Reininho. It has also shared the stage with Remix Ensemble, Casa da Música/Porto Symphony Orchestra and Matosinhos String Quartet. Every year since 2007, OJM performs two new projects with special guests at Casa da Música. 

In 2014, it started the series “New Jazz Talents”, where OJM invites young musicians to play as soloists in front of the Big Band. In 2019, in its 11th edition, a young Spanish musician was invited for the first time, extending the project to the entire Iberian Peninsula from then on.

OJM has performed regularly at major halls in Portugal and tours regularly in several European and American cities, including Barcelona (it was a resident orchestra at Voll-Damm International Jazz for four years), Belgrade, Brussels, Marseille, Vienna (Konzerthaus with Kurt Rosenwinkel), Milan, Boston (Beantown Jazz Festival) and New York. In the Big Apple it made appearances at clubs such as Birdland, Jazz Standard, Jazz Gallery, Iridium and Blue Note, and it was the first Portuguese Jazz band to participate in an American festival (JVC Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, in 2007).

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Album Review

Orquestra Jazz De Matosinhos: Jazz Composers Forum

Read "Jazz Composers Forum" reviewed by Chris Mosey


In 1937 Duke Ellington's recipe for big band jazz was: “It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing." Count Basie later added a caveat defining swing as something “you can really pat your foot by." Times sure have changed. Portugal's Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos commissioned pieces by eight modern composers of big band music--four each from either side of the Atlantic--for their latest album and swing only rarely entered into the equation. Although something ...

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Album Review

Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos: Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos Invites Chris Cheek

Read "Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos Invites Chris Cheek" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Portugal is not exactly famous for its jazz, no doubt due in part to fifty years of a repressive dictatorial regime (roughly coinciding with the birth of modern jazz) that stifled freedom of expression and, perhaps in part, owing to a vibrant tradition of folk music at a grass roots level which in no way felt bereft. One band however, which is putting Portuguese jazz on the map, and in some style, is the Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos. ...

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Recording

Brazilian Classics Performed By Orquestra Jazz De Matosinhos—New Album Curated By Zuza Homem De Mello

Brazilian Classics Performed By Orquestra Jazz De Matosinhos—New Album Curated By Zuza Homem De Mello

Source: Michael Ricci

Album will be released simultaneously in Portugal and Brazil Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos is about to release a new album, Músicas Brasileiras, Músicos Portugueses, curated by Zuza Homem de Mello and arranged by some of the most important contemporary Brazilian composers, with Kiko Freitas (drums), Gabi Guedes (percussion ), and with the Portuguese big band directed by Pedro Guedes. Músicas Brasileiras, Músicos Portugueses will be released on March 28th, in Portugal (CARA) and Brazil simultaneously, by the renowned label Biscoito ...

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Recording

Kurt Rosenwinkel Partners With Portugal's Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos for "Our Secret World" Releasing on WOM Music - September 7, 2010

Kurt Rosenwinkel Partners With Portugal's Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos for "Our Secret World" Releasing on WOM Music - September 7, 2010

Source: DL Media

An Ambitious Big-Band Reworking of Seven Rosenwinkel Compositions Kurt Rosenwinkel has always given us music that has conveyed a sense of masterful story-telling & breathtaking imaginative reach. His significance to the ever-evolving jazz tradition in fact transcends the oft-cited lineage of jazz guitar in much the same way that Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter both impacted colleagues much beyond the scope of their respective instruments. For what has perhaps distinguished Kurt more than anything is his one-of-a-kind compositional voice—full of ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Jazz Composers Forum

Tone of a Pitch Music
2014

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Orquestra de Jazz de...

Fresh Sound Records
2007

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