For 25 years, the AngraJazz festival has brought some of the biggest names in world jazz to Angra do Heroísmo. As the 25th edition is already underway, José Ribeiro Pinto recalled the history of an event that marks the island’s cultural activity and is already recognized outside the archipelago.
“We’ve had the opportunity to bring many of the best jazz musicians in the world here. I don’t think people realize the quality and importance of the musicians we bring here, Carla Bley, TootsThielemans, Charles Lloyd. They are absolutely extraordinary people, the best in the world,” he says.
At the end of the 1990s, Ribeiro Pinto was already presenting the program “Sabores do Jazz” on Antena 1/Açores when the regional secretary for the economy challenged him to create a “real festival, reminiscent of the old Cascais festival.”
At the same time, the mayor of Angra do Heroísmo proposed the same thing to musician Bruno Walter Ferreira.
The two of them got together some friends who also liked jazz and went ahead with organizing the festival, with the only conditions being freedom to choose the line-up and financial support from both entities.
“We’re the ones who organize it, we’re the ones who choose it, you support it financially. We don’t want to receive any money, but we don’t want to pay either,” recalls Ribeiro Pinto.
In 1999, the first edition was held in the cloister of the São Francisco Convent, where the Angra do Heroísmo Museum is located, with the support of the Lisbon-based show producer Paulo Gil.

“The first festival went extremely well. There were four wonderful concerts, with Toots Thielemans, a beautiful harmonica player, and John Scofield, who was and still is a great guitarist. The festival was such a success that Drac [Direção Regional dos Assuntos Culturais – Regional Directorate for Cultural Affairs] immediately announced that it would give 6,000 contos(currency at the time), I think, for a new festival in 2000,” recalls Ribeiro Pinto.
The following year, the AngraJazz Cultural Association was born with the sole purpose of organizing the festival, which in the meantime moved to the Angra do Heroísmo Cultural and Congress Centre and only didn’t take place in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Doing this for 25 years is extremely rewarding,” says Ribeiro Pinto, one of the two members of the original board who still remain with the association.
The festival’s mission is to educate audiences, including musicians. In 2002, the AngraJazz Orchestra was created, which opens the program every year.
“Today it’s the oldest amateur orchestra in the country and it’s also the only jazz school in the region. A lot of young people have been through there, learning to play jazz. And many groups have come out of the orchestra,” says the organizer.

Considered “one of the three best jazz festivals in the country,” according to José Ribeiro Pinto, AngraJazz is also a tourist attraction.
“In 2019, the last time we did a careful survey, we had 27% of the audience from outside the island,” he points out.
The 25th edition of AngraJazz, which kicked off yesterday and runs until Saturday, features names such as Camilla George, Catherine Russel, Vijay Iyer, Ben Rosenblum, Ulisses Owens Jr., Francesco Cafiso, Mário Laginha, João Paulo Esteves da Silva, and Ricardo Toscano. The AngraJazz orchestra again opened the festival, accompanied by Spanish saxophonist PericoSambeat.

in Diário Insular, José Lourenço-director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks the Luso-American Education Foundation for sponsoring FILAMENTOS.