Djazzperado Happy Music - small combo for danceable swing 'n sweet music with a Latin touch

DJAZZPERADO is an international pool of experienced and swinging musicians living in the Algarve, Portugal - and in the Netherlands. Depending on the type of venue we can perform from the duo and trio formats during one hour up to the quintet format for a whole evening - eventually with a singer. In the past our sometime singer, Marga Munguambe, already was an African kind of diva in the Lisbon popscene. She was the feminine voice on various albums of the band "Cool Hipnoise", among others. When singing pure jazz in our combo her voice voice reminds us of the young Ella Fitzgerald. DJAZZPERADO played many different venues, from the Hot Clube of Portugal and the Speakeasy in Lisbon, via nearly all big restaurants and golf clubhouses in the Algarve up to and including private parties and jazz clubs as far away as the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and France. Depending on the venue type, and always in consultation with the client, DJAZZPERADO can perform as a duo, a trio, quartet, or quintet. Multiple lineups/instrumentations can be used in any of these formats. Central lead instrument is the Bb clarinet (and/or the Eb contrabass clarinet), nearly always accompanied by contrabass or piano (and/or guitar, and/or drums). The combo likes to make swinging live music for an audience in the first place, money comes second but nothing comes for free.

DJAZZPERADO wants to explain why their danceble music is not a difficult one despite the name of the band. Danceable jazz, of course, is swing through improvisation, based on inviting themes. Once music starts swinging, no one can sit still anymore, which is why jazz is the most danceable music there is anyway. The very first people - ex-slaves from African origin - who started making this music were able to do so because, at the end of the 19th century, they gained access to the musical instruments of the military bands defeated in the American Civil War. They began to play everyday songs, blues, marches, and dance music by ear, without being able to take lessons on those instruments. Of course, they didn't always get it exactly right and had to improvise to get close to the intended melody but that's how they became musicians. The swing they created through their improvisations turned out to be excellent dance music, and they began to be asked to play at parties and celebrations, if only they kept their clumsy way of playing. Thus, necessity became a virtue, and among those musicians arose the desire to re-create a song every time they play a tune according to how they feel right at that point in time. These improvisations also give both musicians and listeners the idea that there is much more possible than just the improvisation of that moment. That feeling of freedom is also expressed in the movements when dancing to this swining music. In short, happy jazz!