Jazzopa | Mateus Saldanha Quartet

The 23rd edition of the Festa do Jazz takes place from 19 to 21 December at the Centro Cultural de Belém, bringing together artists, agents, and jazz schools from across the country in a programme dedicated to the expansion of jazz sonorities and their most liberating oral expressions.

Jazzopa is an annual collaborative composition and performance workshop exploring the sounds of jazz, hip-hop, and spoken word, in dialogue with other artistic languages. It is based on a creative laboratory model aimed at participants with solid skills who, in each edition, compose the music, lyrics, and poems that make up the repertoire, guided by the idea of real-time improvisation. With artistic direction by Carlos Martins and André Fernandes, and produced by ASL, this 2025 edition features Cynthia Perez (spoken word), jedza (rap), Gabriel Gomes (vocals), André Murraças (saxophone), Vicente Pechorro (keyboards), Joseph Indi (bass), and João Parracho (drums).

The Mateus Saldanha Quartet is led by guitarist Mateus Saldanha and features three renowned musicians on the Portuguese jazz scene: Hugo Lobo on piano, Thiago Alves on double bass, and Gabriel Moraes on drums. Saldanha’s original compositions—rooted in the rich jazz tradition and the jazz and blues standards that form part of the American songbook—were recorded in 2024 for what will be the group’s first full-length album, Trouble, presented for the first time at the Festa do Jazz. For this performance, the quartet is joined by singer Madalena Caldeira and Carlos Barreto on double bass.