Jazz em Agosto 2008 - program

Extensions is the defining concept for Jazz em Agosto 2008. This is the 25th Jazz em Agosto, since the event was launched in 1984, and over the course of two and a half decades it has documented contemporary jazz as it happened and introduced its prime movers. Jazz first came into being with the start of the twentieth century, and now, in the early twenty first, jazz is more than ever questioning its identity, the reality of its enduring validity through a continuous process of intercontinental and even interdisciplinary exchanges. Rising above the resulting quarrels and denunciations, fed by single-track thinking, it is more worthwhile to follow the course of creative musicians, to understand and accept them, to give them a platform on which to present themselves. August 1 - Anfiteatro ao Ar Livre - 21:30

OTOMO YOSHIHIDE NEW JAZZ ORCHESTRA featuring AXEL DRNER, COR FUHLER, MATS GUSTAFSSON (Japan, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden)

O. Yoshihide (conductor, electric guitar), Kahimi Karie (voice), Kenta Tsugami (alto sax, soprano sax), Mats Gustafsson (tenor sax), Axel Drner (trumpet), Chor Fuhler (piano), Sachiko M (sine waves), Kumiko Takara (vibraphone), Hiroaki Mizutani (double bass), Yasuhiro Yoshigaki (drums, trumpet), Masahiko Okura (alto sax, bass clarinet, tubular bells), Taisei Aoki (trombone), Ko Ishikava (shamisen), Taku Unami (objects), Yoshiaki Kondoh (sound design)

An extended version of his Quintet which played at Jazz em Agosto 2004, Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra catches the flavour of one of jazz's main innovators, Eric Dolphy, wrapping its message in sound masses skilfully controlled by Otomo's conceptualism, and featuring exceptional European guest players, to awe-inspiring effect.

August 2 - Auditrio 2 - 18:30

ERIC DOLPHY: LAST DATE / 92', 1991 documentary by Hans Hylkema (screening attended by the director)

Starting out from Eric Dolphy's presence in the Netherlands on 2 June 1964 (only a few weeks prior to his tragic death in Berlin, on 29 June), at an unforgettable radio recording in Hilversum, with Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink and Jacques Schols, preserved on record, Hans Hylkema developed a film biography/portrait in conjunction with Thierry Brunneau, providing a valuable cinematic document on this jazz innovator.

August 2 - Anfiteatro ao Ar Livre - 21:30

SATOKO FUJII MIN-YOH ENSEMBLE (Japan, USA)

S. Fujii (piano), Natsuki Tamura (trumpet), Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Andrea Parkins (accordion)

The new line-up from this pianist, who divides her time between New York, where she made her name, and Tokyo, her home city. The same divide is visible in the internal organization of her music, half Japanese and half American, without a conventional rhythm section of bass and drums, transfiguring Japanese folk music, which is the point of departure for imaginative variations/improvisation.

August 3 - Auditrio 2 - 15:30

A BOOKSHELF ON TOP OF THE SKY/12 Stories About John Zorn / 82', 2002 documentary by Claudia Heuermann

Interviewing, watching and documenting the multiple faces of Zorn - Cobra, Masada, Naked City - in rehearsals, performances and studio sessions, this original biography made by Claudia Heuermann, winner of a number awards, reveals her legitimate admiration for one of the key musicians of today, using her own editing techniques in a film which was ten years in the making, making this the most tantalising document yet made on the sax player.

August 3 - Auditrio 2 18:30

PAAP (Japan)

Inada Makoto (double bass, voice), Katori Koichiro (piano, accordeon, voice), Mizutani Yasuhisa (soprano sax, clarinet, flute, percussion)

A trio from the Tokyo scene discovered by John Zorn on his Tzadik label, as part of the New Japan series in 2005. Originally known as RADAR, one of their defining features is the Japanese “soul" they inject into their exploration of jazz history, homing in on small acoustic jazz combos such as the Jimmy Giuffre 3.

August 3 - Anfiteatro ao Ar Livre - 21:30

JOHN ZORN/FRED FRITH (USA, UK)

John Zorn (alto sax), Fred Frith (electric guitar)

The intrinsic dimension of these two superlative musicians, each view multiple musical personalities, masters of improvisation and with a creative partnership they have long been cultivating on different projects, allows them to take their interaction to a telepathic pitch, to which no listener can remain indifferent.

August 7 - Auditrio 2 - 18:30

MISHA MENGELBERG AFIJN / 80', 2006 documentary by Jellie Dekker and Dick Lucas (screening attended by the directors)

Luminous and raw film about Misha Mengelberg, father figure of the Dutch scene, looking at his personal history from his birth in Kiev in 1935, the son of a diplomat, and calling into question the irreverent Dadaist aura around him, showing him in multiple states: Instant Composers Pool (Jazz em Agosto 2000), his cat “playing" the piano, improvising with his parrot and shared moments with Han Bennink, Dave Douglas and Anthony Braxton.

August 7 - Anfiteatro ao Ar Livre - 21:30

TAYLOR HO BYNUM SEXTET (USA)

T. Ho Bynum (cornet), Matt Bauder (tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet), Mary Halvorson (electric guitar), Evan O'Reilly (electric guitar); Jessica Pavone (viola, electric bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums)

A cornet specialist, Taylor Ho Bynum was discovered by Anthony Braxton, and played in his different line-ups - Sextet (Jazz em Agosto 2006), Dodecateto+1, Diamond Curtain Wall. In this new personal project he is leading a number of Braxton's followers on a journey referring back to the great creators of jazz (Duke Ellington, Miles Davis), riding a dynamic which is 100% jazz and skilfully combining turbulence and dissonant catharsis.

August 8 - Auditrio 3 - 15:30

Panel Discussion: THE CHANGING SCENE Moderator: Bill Shoemaker On the panel: Barre Phillips, Joe McPhee, Taylor Ho Bynum and Mary Halvorson

Bill Shoemaker, leading jazz critic and thinker, acts as moderator for a panel discussion looking at questions relevant to the musicians chosen, representing their generations, and taking into consideration what Marion Brown, the musical innovator, called “the political economy of jazz", in order to enrich perspectives on the practice of jazz at the start of the 21st century. The resulting discussion will be published in the online journal, Point of Departure, which he edits.

August 8 - Auditrio 2 - 18:30

MEMORIZE THE SKY (USA)

Matt Bauder (tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, percussion), Zach Wallace (double bass, vibes, percussion), Aaron Siegel (snare drum, bass drum, percussion)

A trio also drawn from Braxton's young players whose improvised music goes beyond the normal parameters of this language, displaying extended technical dexterity using only acoustic means, exploring long musical forms which develop in the slow complexity of a crystalline ambience, balancing structured investigations of sound which curiously com closer to electronic textures.

August 9 - Anfiteatro ao Ar Livre - 21:30

SYLVIE COURVOISIER LONELYVILLE (Switzerland, France, Japan, USA)

S. Courvoisier (piano, composer), Mark Feldman (violin), Vincent Courbois (cello), Ikue Mori (electronics), Gerald Cleaver (drums)

After playing at Jazz em Agosto in 2002 (Trio Essncia) and 2005 (Mephista), this Swiss pianist presents her latest venture, Lonelyville, with a new sensibility in the field of contemporary composition, where frontiers dissolve, producing complex music with carefully sculpted lines and colours, stretching out to new horizons in a constant process of renewal.

August 9 - Auditrio 2 - 15:30

FRITZ HAUSER (Switzerland)

After appearing in Jazz em Agosto 2007 with Quartet Noir, this master percussionist once again gives proof of his ability to create personal universes, like a watchmaker, assembling components to form a microcosm and chiselling details like a miniaturist/architect of sounds, here and now, laying bare the anatomy of the drum kit, the instrument invented by jazz, taking it to unexpected levels and combining it with a host of other instruments.

August 9 - Auditrio 2 - 18:30

PASCAL CONTET/BARRE PHILLIPS (France, USA)

Pascal Contet (accordion), Barre Phillips (double bass)

An unusual link-up between two out-of-the-ordinary instrumentalists: Contet, the ultra-celebrated accordionist, and Phillips, a jazz icon with an unbroken career stretching back to the sixties. This is their first public appearance together, in a duo for which the expectations know no bounds.

August 9 - Anfiteatro ao Ar Livre - 21:30

PETER BRTZMANN CHICAGO TENTET (Germany, USA, Sweden, Norway)

P. Brtzmann (clarinet, taragot, alto sax, tenor sax), Mats Gustafsson (baritone sax, slide sax), Ken Vandermark (clarinet, tenor sax, baritone sax), Joe McPhee (trumpet, alto sax), Johannes Bauer (trombone), Jeb Bishop (trombone), Per-ke Holmlander (tuba), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), Kent Kessler (double bass), Paal Nilssen-Love and Michael Zerang (drums)

Founded in Chicago in 1997, this group has functioned continuously, as work in progress, generating varying line-ups but sticking to the European-American axis of musicians who have been at its heart, moving beyond elementary conceptions of free jazz, exploring a horizon of structural improvisation tactics, displaying intense energy and control, and treading a path which leads from ferocity to purification. Their music making has taken a multifaceted direction to which all its members have masterfully contributed, and in the wake of their individual performances at Jazz em Agosto since 2000, we look forward to a climactic final blast in 2008.