Although a native of San Francisco, California, Michael Formanek is usually associated to the avant-garde jazz scene of New York, of which he is considered one of the most fundamental representatives of the last five decades. His trajectory in music is, in lack of better words, absolutely remarkable: it was inaugurated in the 1970’s, alongside legendary musicians such as Tony Williams, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz or Fred Hersh, and proceeded throughout the following decades both in the context of the several ensembles of which he was the leader as well as in collaboration with some of the most influential names of contemporary jazz. Among the myriad of formations in which Formanek was involved we may highlight the explosive quartet Bloodcount (led by Tim Berne and complemented by drummer Jim Black and saxophonist Chris Speed, two extraordinary musicians of the contemporary global jazz circuit) and the 18-piece ensemble Kolossus, formed by a group of Formanek’s close accomplices and improvisors from New York. From his body of work as leader we may highlight the septet founded in the 1990s, alongside Dave Douglas, Frank Lacy and the aforementioned Tim Berne, among others, and Formanek’s debut album as leader, the magnificent and highly inventive “Wide Open Spaces”, recorded by an idiosyncratic and superlative band that included violinist Mark Feldman and drummer Jeff Hirsfield.

Among Formanek’s most recent activity one of his most relevant projects is the trio Thumbscrew, alongside guitarist Mary Halvorson (eventually one of the most praised musicians within the global circuit of exploratory jazz) and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, a highly creative and equally influential musician. Both are members of the septet that will make its debut in Guimarães, a formation completed by British pianist Alexander Hawkins (according to some influential critics, one of the most important European jazz musicians of the present), North-American saxophonists Chet Doxas (who will also perform at the festival with the band Landline Plus One) and John O’ Gallagher and, finally, by Norwegian trumpeter Kasper Weye Tranberg. This septet is thus formed by an eclectic group of instrumentalists from both sides of the Atlantic and highly creative from an idiomatic point of view, who share both the relation of artistic complicity with Michael Formanek and a proclivity for musical experimentation. The fact that this group was purposedly assembled to perform at Guimarães Jazz aggrandizes this event and consolidates the festival’s relationship with some of the most influential musicians of the present, and in this context it is worth mentioning that Mary Halvorson, Tomas Fujiwara and Alexander Hawkins have previously performed at our stage, in the case of Fujiwara and Hawkins with the quintet led by Taylor Ho Bynun (2015) and of Halvorson as a member of Dave Douglas’ Uplift band, in 2018.