The creation of this international promotion program for Portuguese improvised music is part of a long-standing strategy pursued by Festa do Jazz and the Associação Sons da Lusofonia (ASL) since its founding in 1996: to build a strong nationwide community capable of sustaining effective promotion throughout Europe and the world.

From before the very first Festa do Jazz in 2003, through the Europe Jazz Conference in Lisbon in 2018, to the first Portuguese jazz delegation at the jazzahead! fair in Bremen, and the inclusion of Portugal in the Europe Jazz Network’s Jazz Panorama, we have been working—recently in partnership with the Portuguese Jazz Network—to elevate Portuguese improvised music and create a visibility platform unlike anything seen before in our history. Yet there is still much to be done. For this reason, we decided to further develop the Jazz Panorama concept, in an initiative supported by the Imprensa Nacional–Casa da Moeda (INCM), to enhance the international public exposure of Portuguese jazz musicians and groups.

The Jazz Panorama Portugal we present here is another of our structured proposals for the internationalization of Portuguese jazz, offering a series of profiles of Portuguese musicians and bands to international—particularly European—programmers. We intend to expand the range of profiles in the future to ensure broad representation of the national jazz community among European programmers. All profiles will be available in English and linked to the online pages of the selected artists and groups. This initiative will also serve as a source of inspiration and support for the training and career development of young musicians in Portugal and across Europe.

Carlos Martins – President of ASL