Even if we sometimes consider European jazz impure, given the necessary mimetic transplantation of melodies and rhythms foreign to the western canon, on the other hand we must concede that the academy has allowed the emergence of musicians and composers who, despite their different views and acting in different configurations, accurately interpret the traditional matrix of Afro-American jazz. Niels Klein, a disciple of Frank Gratkowski and Claudio Puntin at the Musikochschule Koln, is one of those examples due to his meritorious work in collaboration with prestigious German jazz orchestras such as WDR or NDR Big Band. Beyond this aspect of his activity, Klein is also known for is participations in albums by other artists such as Florian Ross or Frank Wingold, while at the same time collaborating with some important names of jazz other musical genres, namely Toots Thielemanns, Bob Brookmeyer or Markus Stockausen.

The invitation addressed to the Niels Klein Trio (formed, besides the saxophonist, by bassist Matthias Akeo Nowak and by drummer Fabian Arends) to work with the Orchestra of Guimarães in this edition of the festival draws, in a sense, a line of divergence from this partnership’s previous experiences. The paradigm shift dwells from the fact that in Niels Klein’s work, contrary to other composers who in the past embraced this project (such as Marco Barroso or Nels Cline, among others), improvisation takes precedence over composition, therefore favoring a greater dynamic with the orchestration and allowing the fluidity of the real-time creative experience to be enhanced by the compositional rigor of the arrangements.