"Pedro Branco is a Portuguese guitar player now residing in Amsterdam. Born in Lisbon, he has studied with some of the finest jazz musicians on the portuguese scene (André Fernandes, Afonso Pais, Mário Delgado, Demian Cabaud, Gonçalo Marques, Desidério Lázaro) and participated in several workshops and masterclasses (Kurt Rosenwinkel, Aaron Goldberg, Dave Holland, Matt Renzi, David Doruzka, Peter Bernstein).

Graduated from the Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa in 2013, he has participated in many projects, not only in jazz (Pedro Branco Quartet, Reflections Trio, Jorge Moniz, Then They Flew, Oh! Calcutta!), and has played in such venues as the Hot Club of Lisbon, Café Tati, Fábrica Braço de Prata, Bacalhoeiro and many others. In 2013 he received a distinction during "Festa do Jazz São Luiz" for "Best Instrumentalist". In the following year he was asked to join the "Jacob Sacks Ensemble" led by the renowned pianist from New York for a concert in the same festival, "Festa do Jazz São Luiz 2014", where he returns now in 2015 with his own group, "Pedro Branco Trio", formed by two of the best portuguese jazz musicians (Demian Cabaud and Marcos Cavaleiro).

Now studying at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, he could study with people like Maarten van der Grinten, Martijn Van Iterson or Rob van Bavel, have masterclasses with names like Miguel Zenon, Gilad Hekselman, Mark Turner, Lage Lund, Branford Marsalis, Avishai Cohen or Ambrose Akinmusire and started new projects such as the new post-rock/noise band called Oh! Calcutta!, featuring Dario Trapani (guitar), Valdimar Olgeirsson (bass) and Tristan Renfrow (drums). Their debut EP "The Greatess Story Ever Told" is going to be released still in the 23th of February of 2016.

​ In 2015 he puts together his own project as a leader - Pedro Branco Quartet - with Allison Philips (trumpet), João Hasselberg (doublebass) and Luís Candeias (drums). They toured in Portugal in the summer of 2015 where they played in some of the most prestigious jazz clubs in Lisbon and recorded what is going to be the first record of the group. Also in 2015 he records three new records with different projects, all of them coming out in 2016.BRANCO | CUSTÓDIO | MONIZ is a trio formed by Branco with João Custódio on the doublebass and Jorge Moniz on the drums. Their first record is coming out with the portuguese label Sintoma Records. Also in 2016 is coming the first record of the duo BRANCO | LENCASTRE, a duo of improvised music with the drummer João Lencastre that explores all the musical possibilities of a power duo. They also perform in trio with the prestigious guitar player André Fernandes.

His latest project is a duo co-leaded with João Hasselberg. Their record is coming out in the fall of 2016 and is called "Dancing our Way to Death". The record had the participation of several guests such as Afonso Pais, Afonso Cabral (You Can't Win Charlie Brown), João Paulo Esteves da Silva, João Lencastre and Elina Silova.

In 2016 he starts a new artist-based collective called Flea Boy Records, together with four other upcoming musicians from different nationalities with the goal of putting their music out in the open and creating new ways of sharing their music with a larger audience."

João Sousa, aka Drum Par, Johnny Dynamite, Verme, is a Portuguese drummer. He is known for the groups A-nimal, Cardíaco, Cicuta, Deslize, O Poema (A)Corda, Parpar, and Uivo Zebra.

"I am a doublebass/electricbass player currently living in Lisbon, trying to learn and play as much as I can. I'm teaching doublebass at the "Villas-Boas Jazz School" from the Hot Clube de Portugal.

Just released my first album as a leader called "Whatever It Is You're Seeking, Won't Come In The Form You're Expecting" for Sintoma Records.

Some of my projects are:

•My own band

feat. Luis Figueiredo piano ; Bruno Pedroso drums ; Ricardo Toscano sax ; Diogo Duque trumpet ; João Firmino and Afonso Pais guitar ; Luisa Sobral and Joana Espadinha vocals

•Nuno Ferreira

feat. Nuno Ferrira guitar ; Chris Kase trumpet ; João Mortagua alto sax ; Luis Cunha trombone ; Abe Rabade piano ; Joel Silva drums

•André Santos

feat. André Santos guitar ; Ricardo Toscano sax ; João Pereira drums

•João Firmino Trio

feat. João Firmino guitar ; Luis Candeias drums

•Luisa Sobral

feat. Luisa Sobral vocals ; João Salcedo piano ; Carlos Miguel drums

•Spyros Manesis Trio

feat. Spyros Manesis piano ; Kaspars Kurdeko drums

•João Firmino 5tet

feat. João Firmino guitar ; Desiderio Lazaro sax ; Oscar Graça piano ; Luis Candeias drums

•Mariana Norton

feat. Mariana Norton vocals ; Bruno Santos guitar ; Oscar Graça piano ; Luis Candeias drums

•Bruno Santos Ensemble

feat. Bruno Santos guitar ; Rodrigo Gonçalves piano ; Luis Candeias drums ; Jorge Reis alt/soprano sax ; Cesar Cardoso tenor sax ; Paulo Gaspar bass clarinete ; Gonçalo Marques trumpet ; Luis Cunha trombone ; Mariana Norton vocals.

I was born on a cold January 1986 morning in Lisbon...

Piano was my first try to get in touch with music when I was a kid living in the countryside of Alentejo but soon I found out that this was not my instrument but something else. It wasn't until my 16th easter that I got my first electric bass as a gift. A gift that changed my future as nothing else did before.

During this period I studied with Gregg Moore and Miguel Amado who taught me the fundamentals of electric bass playing as well as the masters of this instrument, but as soon as I finished High School I moved back to Lisbon to study jazz in the Hot Clube de Portugal "Luis Villas-Boas Jazz School".

When I turned 20 I found out that I couldn't express what I wanted with an electric bass and so I decided to learn double bass with Nelson Cascais as a teacher.

One year later I moved to Holland to study in the Amsterdam Conservatory, with 3 great teachers: Franz van der Hoeven, Arnold Dooyawerd and Ernst Glerum and I graduated in June 2010 with 9 out of 10.

During the period I studied in Amsterdam I got the 3rd Prize in the "Bucharest International Jazz Competition" and went to the semi-finals of the "Keep an Eye Jazz Award 2009" - nothing really came out of it, but I met some great people on the way. Recently I won the "Premio Jovens Musicos 2011" jazz combo category with Ricardo Toscano Quartet.

I had the opportunity to play in some major jazz Festivals around the world like London Jazz Festival (UK), Cully Jazz (switzerland) , Den Hague Jazz Festival, Jazz Ahead (germany) IJ Jazz Festival, Breda Jazz Festival, Meer Jazz festival, Trytone Jazz Festival, (Holland), Festival Internacional de Jazz de Barcelona, Festival de Jazz de Cartagena, Europa Fest (Romania), Sudoeste TMN, CoolJazzFest, Festa de Jazz do S.Luis, Festival de Valado dos Frades, Jazz no Castelo, Seixal Jazz (Portugal).

I had the pleasure to learn with John Clayton, Larry Grenadier, Reuben Rogers, Ben Street and Clemens Van der Feen.

I'm currently beeing taught by Alejandro Oliva."

"After establishing his name during the Eighties as an electric bass guitarist in alternative rock bands, like the now legendary K4 Quadrado Azul, Hernani Faustino turned to avant-jazz and free improvised music and chose the double bass as his self-taught instrument. Two decades later of multiple interactions with Portuguese and international musicians, he's now considered one of the most intense and solid bassists in the Portuguese scene. The association he maintains with drummer Gabriel Ferrandini (RED trio, Nobuyasu Furuya Trio & Quintet, Rodrigo Amado Wire Quartet) has been pointed as a dynamic and powerful rhythm section. His visceral playing is well showed by the contortions of his face during a performance: he goes to the limits of pleasure and pain.

Music is his life: besides being a musician, he was one of the members of the label Clean Feed, considered one of the five more important on the planet in what regards jazz, and the Trem Azul Jazz Store, located in Lisbon. He also composed for theatre, produced radio programs, and wrote about music in a couple of magazines. A good part of his activity in photography is also music oriented: Faustino is one of the most accomplished stage photographers around. This says all about his passion and commitment.

Hernani Faustino's numerous meetings and collaborations with other improvisors is astonishing: John Butcher, Lotte Anker, Nate Wooley, Carlos "Zíngaro", Agustí Fernández, Sei Miguel, Rafael Toral, Jason Stein, Nuno Rebelo, Rodrigo Pinheiro, Gabriel Ferrandini, Pedro Sousa, Rodrigo Amado, Albert Cirera, Manuel Mota, Luís Lopes, Jon Irabagon, Taylor Ho Bynum, Gerard Lebik, Piotr Damasiewicz, Harris Eisenstadt, Neil Davidson, Heddy Boubaker, Gerard Lebik, Elliott Levin, Katsura Yamauchi, Mats Gustafsson, Chris Corsano, Nikolaus Gerszewski, Rob Mazurek, Reinhold Friedl, Ernesto Rodrigues, José Oliveira, Helena Espvall, Nuno Torres, Ricardo Jacinto, Blaise Siwula, Virginia Genta, Elliott Levin, Daniel Carter, Federico Ughi, Floros Floridis, Matt Bauder, Dennis González, Vítor Rua, and many more, covering a wide range from free bop to extreme experimentation, going through electroacoustic improv, reductionism and noise."

"Tony Malaby (born January 12, 1964 in Tucson, Arizona) is a jazz tenor saxophonist. Malaby moved to New York City in 1995 and has played with several notable jazz groups, including Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band, Mark Helias's Open Loose, Fred Hersch's Trio + 2 and Walt Whitman project, and bands led by Mario Pavone, Chris Lightcap, Bobby Previte, Tom Varner, Marty Ehrlich, Angelica Sanchez, Mark Dresser, and Kenny Wheeler. Other collaborators have included Tom Rainey, Christian Lillinger, Ben Monder, Eivind Opsvik, Nasheet Waits, and Michael Formanek. His first album as a co-leader was Cosas with Joey Sellers."