Jazz in Tondela

Tondela is a small market town about 30 minutes from Tabua. It doesn't give the appearance of anything grand or particularly cultural. But our Portuguese teacher Ana, herself a saxophonist, told us about a jazz festival there this weekend. We decided to go on Friday evening just to see what was going on

We arrived just before 9pm (having been told the evening's concert began at 10pm). It would have been easy to miss the venue (Culture and Recreation Association of Tondela) or mistake it for a closed and dilapidated school. But in fact, behind the boarded up school on a minor back street was a modern complex with an open-air cafe/restaurant space, chic art shop, and a buzz of people. We had something to eat, then followed the crowds to the stage -- a rather nice outdoor affair. The first band were a local Portuguese quartet (Luis Tapa T4) playing a specially written piece that I would characterize as contemporary/experimental jazz. In the interval, we were entertained by a Dixie jazz group from Belgium. The second band of the night was the Fab Trio, a peculiar but brilliiant mix of bass, percussion, and violin. Though we were pretty tired by this time -- as country types we now tend to go to bed early and rise at the crack -- we spend the whole set on the edge of our seats. It was an excellent, exhilarating performance. And especially good for being outside in the cool (cold?) mountain air.

Without being told about the festival, we would never have found it on our own. We get the feeling that's true of a lot of interesting things going on around here. And in fact perhaps that's true of Tokyo, as well: if you don't know where to look for information, so much could remain hidden. Anyway, we were glad of the hint given to us by Ana, and will look out for the 3rd Jazz in Tondela (Jazzin' Tondela) next year.