José Lencastre
José Lencastre is celebrated for his versatility and innovative approach to jazz and improvised music. Over the years, he has become a central figure in Portugal’s vibrant improvised music scene, known for his ability to move fluidly between different musical genres within the realm of contemporary creative music.
His music is deeply rooted in the belief that it has a transformative and healing power. This approach reflects Lencastre’s dedication to contributing to a better and more harmonious world. Each performance is designed to create moments of introspection, emotional resonance, and unity, allowing the music to transcend its traditional boundaries and foster a deep connection between the musicians and the audience.
With a prolific career, José has participated in around 60 albums, 30 of which as leader or co-leader. This extensive discography reflects not only his dedication to his art, but also his commitment to pushing boundaries and exploring new creative horizons. His albums have been praised by prestigious publications such as Jazz.pt, All About Jazz, Free Jazz Blog, Salt Peanuts, NYC Jazz Records, and Ípsilon.
He tours regularly throughout Europe, performing at prominent festivals and venues such as Area Sismica, Krakow Jazz Festival, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Aarhus Jazz Festival, Dragon Social Club, Jazz em Agosto, and Konfrontationen Festival.
His collaborations extend internationally, working with renowned musicians
such as Susan Alcorn, Raoul Van der Weide, Onno Govaert, Kresten Osgood, Peter Evans, Margaux Oswald, Michael Formanek, Clara Lai, Dirk Serries, Martina Verhoeven, Eve Risser, Guilherme Granado, Aleksandar Scoric, Sakina Abdou, Peter Orins, Andrew Lisle, Bart Maris, John Dikeman, Zbigniew Kozera, and Vasco Trilla, among others.
José is also co-founder of Phonogram Unit, a record label created during the
2020 pandemic with the aim of releasing free and contemporary music by associated musicians. In addition to his work with the label, he has contributed to the community by organizing concerts, helping to connect both the local audience and international musicians visiting Lisbon.
With each project, José Lencastre seeks to use music as a positive force, offering a unique artistic vision that connects, inspires, and unites people, demonstrating his unwavering commitment to creating a more compassionate and connected world.
Jonas Cambien
Jonas Cambien (b.1985) is a Belgian/Norwegian pianist, composer and improviser active in jazz, improvised and contemporary music.
With a solid background in classical music, but as much a child of Oslo’s freejazz and improvised music scene, his style passes seamlessly from Cecil Taylor to Ligeti, creating his own language on the way.
Most noted for leading Jonas Cambien Trio, featuring André Roligheten on reeds, and Andreas Wildhagen on drums, and the quartet ‘Maca Conu’, featuring Norwegian bass player Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Danish saxophone player Signe Emmeluth, and drummer Andreas Wildhagen, Cambien has performed on major stages and jazz festivals in Norway and abroad, and has released several albums on the Portuguese label Clean Feed: ‘A Zoology of the Future’ (2016), ‘We Must Mustn’t We’ (2018), ‘Nature Hath Painted the Body’(2021) and Maca Conu (2024), all to critical acclaim. The American jazz critic John Sharpe picked ‘A Zoology of the Future’ as one of the 10 best jazz albums of 2016, and said about ‘We Must Mustn’t We’: ‘They sound like no-one else.’
Cambien is part of ‘The Handover’ together with Aly Eissa and Ayman Asfour, a trio that combines deep Arabic folk roots and ritual music of rural Egypt with modern improvisation, krautrock influences and psychedelic shaabi, and has released a critically acclaimed album on Sublime Frequencies. In addition, Cambien performs with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra&Marianna Sangita Røe. He is a founding member of Aksiom, an Oslo-based ensemble for contemporary music, and has guested other ensembles for contemporary music such as Assamissimasa, ensemble neoN and Lemur. He has also performed with some of the major figures in the Scandinavian and global improvised music and freejazz scenes such as Paal Nilssen-Love, Xavier Charles, Dave Rempis, Per Zanussi and Andreas Røysum.
Michael Formanek
Michael Formanek has been described as “a bold and unclassifiable bassist and composer,” while The New York Times has noted that his music is always “graceful in its subversions, often even sumptuous.” Whether it’s for a small band or a large ensemble, he creates modern jazz that is earthy yet atmospheric, always alive with dark-hued melody and bone-deep rhythms, rich in dynamic possibility and the sound of surprise. Even with decades of experience to his credit – he got his start as a Bay Area teenager playing with the likes of Joe Henderson and Tony Williams – Formanek has made some of his keenest creative leaps in recent years, documented on a sequence of justly lauded recordings. His three ECM albums as a leader each scored rare five-star reviews in DownBeat. These included two discs – Small Places (2012) and The Rub and Spare Change (2010) – featuring a powerhouse quartet with saxophonist Tim Berne, pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver; the third was a magnificent record – The Distance (2016) – that showcased his compositions for an all-star big band, playfully dubbed Ensemble Kolossus. Formanek’s first album for the Intakt label, Time Like This (2018), saw him leading his new Elusion Quartet with saxophonist Tony Malaby, pianist Kris Davis and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith to “soul-stirring” effect, according to All About Jazz. Formanek’s latest release from Intakt Records, Imperfect Measures, his second solo bass recording was released in mid-2021. Were We Where We Were by the Michael Formanek Drome Trio with saxophonist/clarinetist Chet Doxas, and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza was released in March 2022 on his newly minted label, Circular File Records.
Born in San Francisco in 1958, Formanek has performed in myriad contexts over the decades, including with masters from Gerry Mulligan and Stan Getz to Freddie Hubbard and Fred Hersch. Among his peers, the bassist has collaborated closely with Tim Berne, making a duo album with the saxophonist (Ornery People) and performing extensively in Berne’s iconic Bloodcount band in the ’90s. Formanek also released a solo LP – Am I Bothering You? – via Berne’s Screwgun label in 1998. Thumbscrew, a collaborative trio featuring Formanek and Halvorson alongside drummer Tomas Fujiwara, has released four lauded albums via Cuneiform. Formanek’s early recordings as a leader included a string of quartet and septet releases for Enja from 1990 to 1996. As a sideman, he has recorded with Uri Caine, Dave Burrell, Jane Ira Bloom, Gary Thomas, Jack Walrath, Joe Maneri, Harold Danko, Lee Konitz, Freddie Redd, Art Pepper, Chet Baker and even Elvis Costello, along with appearing on albums by such frequent partners as Berne, Halvorson, Fujiwara, Malaby, multi-reedist Marty Ehrlich, trumpeter Dave Ballou, saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, drummer Devin Gray and pianist Angelica Sanchez. From 2001 to 2018, Formanek taught jazz bass and jazz history at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he also directed the Peabody Jazz Orchestra. He continues to perform, teach privately and conduct workshops and masterclasses internationally. Michael Formanek received a 2023 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. In May of 2023 he relocated to Lisbon, Portugal.
João Lencastre
João Lencastre is a drummer/composer from Lisbon.
He started playing drums at the age of 13 and had his first contact with jazz at 16 when he joined the Hot Clube de Portugal school, where he studied with Bruno Pedroso. His interest and passion for all kinds of music led him to participate in projects in different musical areas, ranging from jazz to rock, Afro beat, reggae, metal, punk, and electronic music.
Over more than 20 years as a professional, he has had the opportunity to play at the country’s main festivals and venues, as well as internationally throughout the world, including the US, Czech Republic, England, Brazil, Germany, Poland, Spain, Macau, Russia, Holland, and Panama.
He has played and recorded with renowned musicians such as David Binney, Bill Carrothers, André Fernandes, Mário Franco, John O’Gallagher, Michael Formanek, Thomas Morgan,
Jacob Sacks, Phil Grenadier, André Matos, Leo Genovese, Rodrigo Amado, Eivind Opsvik, Masa Kamaguchi, Drew Gress, Benny Lackner, João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Noah Preminger, Sara Serpa, Blasted Mechanism, Tiago Bettencourt, among many others.
Lencastre has eleven albums released under his name, all of which have been very well received, not only nationally but also internationally, with very positive reviews in some of the most prestigious magazines, newspapers, and websites specializing in jazz, including Modern Drummer, Downbeat, Expresso, Jazz Times, Ipslon, Jazz.PT, Jazzwise, All About Jazz, NYC Jazz Record, among many others.
In 2019, he was voted “jazz musician of the year” by critic António Branco for Jazz.pt magazine.
In 2022, he won the “best jazz album” category with “Unlimited Dreams,” an award given by Vodafone/Prémios Play, and in the same year received the RTP/Festa do Jazz award for “musician of the year.”
“Safe in Your Own World” was voted onto the monthly list “The best Jazz on Bandcamp” by Dave Summer in October 2022.
Saxofone José Lencastre Piano Jonas Cambien Bass Michael Formanek Drums João Lencastre
