– The city of Angra do Heroísmo, in the Azores, will celebrate International Jazz Day on April 30, but the event was in danger of not taking place due to lack of public support, the AngraJazz association said today.
“If it weren’t for the Angra do Heroísmo City Council, this would already be over. In 15 days’ time, we’re going to hold International Jazz Day and we still haven’t received the support from the Regional Directorate for Culture [for last year’s edition],” said AngraJazz Cultural Association board member José Ribeiro Pinto at a press conference.
Since 2017, the city of Angra do Heroísmo, on Terceira island, has been associated with the International Jazz Day celebrations, with the exception of the years of the covid-19 pandemic.
In the year in which the AngraJazz festival, promoted by the association of the same name, celebrates its 25th anniversary, “it didn’t make sense” not to celebrate International Jazz Day, but José Ribeiro Pinto admitted that he “doubted” that it would take place.
“When we’re getting less and less support from the regional directorate for Culture, we’ve been resorting to our own funds, which are practically running out and we’re starting to shrink,” he explained.
The AngraJazz festival already has dates set, from October 2 to 5, with eight concerts over four nights, and “almost all the musicians hired”, but funding has not yet been secured.
“We’re going to the 25th anniversary and we have no idea how much money we’re going to have for AngraJazz, we don’t even know when we’re going to find out and even less when we’re going to receive it, because last year’s support we received in January/February,” warned José Ribeiro Pinto.
“People all over the jazz world know what AngraJazz is, Down Beat magazine knows what AngraJazz is, for example. Down Beat is the ‘jazz bible’ around the world. AngraJazz is part of the national and international calendar and here in the region it seems that nobody knows what AngraJazz is,” he added.
Miguel Cunha, also a member of the association’s board, pointed out that the Funchal jazz festival, which was created a year after AngraJazz, has “triple the public support”, whereas five years ago the two had “very similar budgets”.
“Prices have risen a lot, from airline tickets to the price of cachets and accommodation… And we’re still fighting for a budget that, in terms of public support, is the same as it was 10 years ago,” he said.
Miguel Cunha also criticized the criteria for granting support from the regional directorate for Culture.
“We have created an audience, we have full shows, we have an audience that pays and yet we have support that is often lower than other [events],” he lamented.
This year’s International Jazz Day program in Angra do Heroísmo includes a concert by the local AngraJazz orchestra, with comments from conductor and musical director Pedro Moreira, and a concert by the Rita Caravaca Trio.
“They are three young people who are still studying at the Escola Superior de Música and the Hot Clube, who started playing together this year and are already playing original songs with great success,” said José Ribeiro Pinto.
For the association leader, the program is “very curious, apparently simpler, but extremely interesting”.
“It meets one of the main objectives of International Jazz Day, which is to promote the spread of jazz, especially among people who have been far from this musical genre,” he said.
This year, for the first time, the initiative has the financial support of the Hot Clube de Portugal.
The deputy mayor of Angra do Heroísmo, Guido Teles, pointed out that the event “has marked the cultural calendar” of the island and “has managed to attract quite an audience”.
