AUTHOR: IVO MARTINS TRANSLATION: SCOTT M. CULP
EDITION: (CD Liner Notes) Tone of a Pitch Records DATE: November 2009
Partnership with TOAP Records began with the 2006 edition of Guimarães Jazz, which resulted in the release of
the CD entitled, “Guimarães Jazz/TOAP Colectivo Vol. 1.” Thus it started, a new type of project focusing on the
artistic exchange taking place between Guimarães Jazz and the artists associated with TOAP (Tone of a Pitch),
an independent Portuguese brand managed by musicians who have been attending to the important task of
disseminating jazz created by Portuguese performers. With this recording label, we have established an
agreement of collaboration, one where with each edition of Guimarães Jazz we prepare innovative and
artistically creative music exclusive to the festival, which features performances by Portuguese as well as foreign
musicians. For every edition of Guimarães Jazz we therefore prepare a concert, one conceived especially for the
event and the result of this artistic collaboration. The final product of this experience is always recorded as a CD
and released at the following year’s Festival. The goal of this project is to enable Guimarães Jazz to document its
history through the audio recording of some of its concerts and to have the Festival see its recordings produced
and released to the public.
The Guimarães Jazz/TOAP Colectivo Project is characterized by the coming together of various musicians to
create an experimental grouping that only exists for this reason. Each participant is told to bring a previously
unpublished piece, written specifically for the event, to be premiered and recorded at the Guimarães Jazz
Festival. In 2008, TOAP Records and Guimarães Jazz invited two prominent Portuguese musicians: João
Moreira (trumpet and flugelhorn) and Alexandre Frazão (drummer with solid credits on the European jazz
scene). The invitation was extended to three other musicians from New York: Ben Monder (an exceptional
guitarist), an inimitable talent heard regularly in groups with Paul Motian, Chris Cheek, Lee Konitz, Marc
Johnson, Maria Schneider and others, making him one of the most requested musicians around today; Peter
Rende (a one-of-a-kind musician, master of many instruments) who enlivens any type of project he is involved
with by his talent at the piano, f-rhodes, accordion, laptop and vocals - his new trio is made up of the promising
Ben Street (from Kurt Rosenwinkel’s group) and Jeff Ballard (from the Brad Mehldau Trio); and finally at bass,
Matt Pavolka, a force upholding the musical universe of Ohad Talmor and even of Akiko Pavolka, Lee Konitz and
many other musicians of New York’s new generation. This group of exceptional quality has prepared a series of
compositions written solely for the Collective, with the world premiere given here with this concert, affording us
this unique opportunity to enjoy the final fruits of a unique collaborative association. The opportunity to make
these gatherings and shared experiences a reality is proof of the power of music as a universal language as well as
the mark of Portugal’s becoming increasingly visible on the international map of jazz.
