The lineup for the special edition celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Ageas Cooljazz festival was finalized this Thursday, May 9th, with the ultimate announcement from the organizers. There will be a new stage dedicated to the Late Nights, hosting DJ sets throughout the night; and the names set to perform at the Cascais Jazz Sessions by Smooth FM and play music in the Cascais Lazy Sundays garden were also revealed.
Let's start with the late-night sessions. DJ sets will be delivered by Alex D’Alva Teixeira, Progressivu, Sónia Trópicos, Pedro Tenreiro, Matilde Castro, Beatriz Pessoa, Daniel Mota, and Pedro Dias de Almeida. "I'm very curious to see how people will embrace this new format," Alex D’Alva Teixeira, one of the DJs responsible for energizing the Late Nights, shared with Time Out after finishing the main stage concert. "I've been DJing quite a bit over the past two years, been invited to play at some festivals, but I found it really intriguing to be invited to play at Cooljazz. In fact, I've been working on some edits and remixes, and I'll figure out how to bring some of the artists from the lineup into my sonic universe," the musician added.
"What I try to do in a DJ set is explore my Brazilian roots, so there's a lot of funk, and also my Afro-descendency, so it's obvious that you'll hear kuduro, amapiano, and afrohouse. My DJ sets are very eclectic, so there ends up being space for a lot of different things, and that's what I like about the possibility of being an open-format DJ. I hope people enjoy the songs I'll create specifically for this set," he adds. "Especially on the night I'm playing, you'll be able to see the pop of Morcheeba and Chaka Khan, who is a reference even in dance music. Why not have the opportunity to continue celebrating into the night? I look at jazz as an umbrella genre, able to encompass other subgenres, and it's also the root of much of what we hear today. Maybe there wouldn't be house music if there wasn't jazz."
The festival's director, Karla Campos, says there was already a desire to extend the Cooljazz experience after the main stage performances. "My desire to expand the Ageas Cooljazz program even further always exists. Because that's what a festival is made of. And I love music so much, curating, searching, and seeing what the artists are doing that I always want to have more programming. And in the year the festival turns 20, it made sense to offer something new," she explains.
"After the performances by the artists who close the main stage, it always feels like there's a little something missing: I wanted to have another drink, chat with my friend, dance... I felt that this extension of the night was needed. In the year we turn 20, I think it was very important to have the opportunity to offer this add-on to the audience without them having to pay more for it, because it's already included in the ticket and it makes a difference."
As for the Cascais Jazz Sessions by Smooth FM, the lineup includes the Rogério Pitomba trio (July 9), Onoma (July 10), Marwan (July 19), Eunice Barbosa (July 26), Samalandra (July 27), Gisela Mabel (July 30) and Guilherme Melo (July 31). The DJ sets that take place on Sunday evenings in the gardens of the Casa das Histórias Paula Rego will be performed by Inês Lopes Gonçalves and Ivo Costa (July 14), Vanda Miranda (July 21) and Wandson (July 28).
Headliners
The main lineup, which was already known, includes concerts by Air and Lana Gasparøtti (July 9), Morcheeba and Chaka Khan (July 10), Dino D’Santiago and MARO (July 19), Diana Krall (July 26), Marina Sena and Luedji Luna (July 27), Fat Freddy’s Drop and Expresso Transatlântico (July 30), and Jamie Cullum and Inês Marques Lucas (July 31).
There was a clear preference for artists who are part of the festival's history in this 20th-anniversary edition. "Jamie Cullum and Diana Krall, for example, are names that have always been with us. They agreed to perform at a time when the festival was just starting. It was also with them that the festival took a leap in terms of maturity - especially in the case of Diana Krall, who is a jazz artist with almost mainstream appeal, and that gave us a different stamp and notoriety. Over the years, with the albums she released, we continued to want to bring her back. Having her in the year we celebrate our 20th anniversary is a gift and a prize. In the year she first came, she was the only one performing, no one else played. Today, on a Diana Krall night, there are four moments of music, so you can really see the festival's growth," continues Karla Campos.
The challenge is always to present "more music and more artists," without neglecting the essence of the festival, which still does not have stages with simultaneous programming. "This concept will remain, with a seated audience and various stages in nature. That is a feature I will not give up at all. What can happen is more programming, more artists, more ideas. Let's go."
Hipódromo Manuel Possolo, Avenida da República, 371, Cascais
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