Free Celebration (Concert for International Day of Jazz)

Drummer and composer, João Lencastre has been a central figure in national jazz over the last two decades.

His multidimensional work places him both in the more conservative jazz area and in the realms of exploratory improvised music, always leaving an indelible mark on the projects and groups in which he is involved. His latest album points in both directions to which the title alludes: on the one hand, a celebratory strand of the music of three inescapable figures in the history of jazz: Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), Herbie Nichols (1919-1963) and Ornette Coleman (1930-2015); another, the freedom to creatively question the richness of these legacies in an uncluttered and unfettered way.

Free Celebration, released in 2024 by Robalo, is therefore different from the drummer’s previous records, focused not on his own compositions, but on the reinterpretation of works by some of his favorite jazz composers, to which he adds some collective improvisations.

Reservation is needed.