"José Soares, saxophonist and composer, was born in Luxembourg in 1991. He moved to Portugal and began his musical studies at the local band in Figueira da Foz. Later he entered the Conservatório de Música David de Sousa to the saxophone class of the professor José Firme. He then moved to Espinho to study in Escola Profissional de Música de Espinho, an undergraduate professional school, where he studied with Fernando Ramos, Gilberto Bernardes and Francisco Ferreira.

In 2010 José entered ESMAE (Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo), the University of Music and Performing Arts, Oporto, where he holds the degree of bachelor in Jazz Saxophone Performance. There he studied in the Jazz Department with Mário Santos, Nuno Ferreira, Carlos Azevedo, Abe Rábade, among others.

In 2017 he began his Master Studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam being tutored by Ben van Gelder, Joris Roelofs and Jasper Blom which he finished in 2019.Soares is an active musician playing and touring around Europe with many international bands; he's a guest soloist in several large formations like OJM (Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos) and BSP (Banda Sinfónica Portuguesa).

As a composer, he's main focus is to convey his experience to specific set of musicians like his Quartet (with Youngwoo Lee on piano, Jort Terwijn on Bass and Sun Mi Hong on drums), he's trio (Gonçalo Neto on guitar and Alessandro Fongaro on bass) or he's co-lied trio with the mexican singer songwriter Fuensanta Mendéz and the astonishing trumpet player Alistair Payne. Soares also writes for his duo with Harmen Fraanje, a very intimate and boundary.less duo.

Beside his own projects, Soares has been a requested musician for several bands with whom he has been recording his work: Ensemble Super Moderne (winner of the Best Jazz Album 2015, JazzLogical), AXES (winner of the Best Jazz Album 2017), Liquid Identities (Keep and Eye Competition 2019), Eduardo Cardinho Quintet (winner of "Prémio Jovens Músicos" 2014), Jeffery Davis Quintet, João Grilo e a Longifolia, Mané Fernandes "The Mantra of The Phat Lotus", Pedro Melo Alves' Omniae Ensemble, AXES, Guy Tristan Salamon (Keep an Eye Records winner 2018), Giuseppe Campisi, among many others."

"André Matos is a NYC based and Portuguese native multi faceted guitarist whose main focus, in recent years, has been playing solo guitar. Matos creates original songs, moments and landscapes, using traditional guitar sounds as well as expanding through effect manipulation and looping. His stellar career in jazz and songs is shown through several collaborations over the last 15 years, namely two critically acclaimed albums co-led with singer Sara Serpa, as well as several iterations of his own trio of guitar-bass-drums."

"Portuguese jazz bassist and composer André Carvalho is an active NYC freelancer whose works AllAboutJazz described as "both in bounds and out of this world." Nate Chinen of The New York Times dubbed Carvalho a bassist "you should get to know." André has played with Jazz stars Chris Cheek, Will Vinson, and Tommy Crane. And André's performance credits range from the Colors Jazz Festival (Paris), the Cairo Jazz Festival, and Jazz Festival Ljubliana, to venues such as Blue Note (New York), Konzerthaus Berlin, and Casa da Música (Porto).

Among the awards he has received are the "Carlos Paredes 2012" (a major annual prize that celebrates Portuguese music and culture) and the "Best Group" at Bucharest International Jazz Competition 2011. In addition, he has received multiple grants from the GDA Foundation to record ("Memória de Amiba") and to tour (2017 and 2019).

The scope of his work extends far beyond Jazz. With multi-Grammy award winner Gilberto Gil, André toured Europe performing his new opera "Prelúdio." The collaboration included Nova Ópera de Lisboa and the drumming ensemble Cortejo Afro, premiering portions of the new work in venues such as the Barbican Center (London) and Finlandia Talo (Helsinki). He has performed with classical conductors Gustavo Dudamel, Heinrich Schiff, and Franz Welser-Möst and collaborated with Fado singers Carlos do Carmo and Cristina Branco.

[...]

Mesmerised by Jazz, improvised music, and composition as a teenager, Andre's background was anything but traditional. Carvalho holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. André relocated to the US in 2014 as a Fulbright grantee. While finishing his first bachelor in Computer Science (Faculdade de Ciências Lisbon), he fell in love with music, leading him to study at the Hot Club de Portugal and Academia de Amadores de Música (with Fernando Flores)."