The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, founded in 1966 as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and today directed by Jim McNeely, returns to Guimarães, after visiting the festival in 1999, and "still continues to defend the legacy of its founders, to pay homage to the traditional legacy of jazz and challenging the boundaries of the orchestral jazz idiom", the organisation announced.

The closing of Guimarães Jazz will also be performed by an orchestra, Kathrine Windfeld's big band, with Israeli guitarist Gilad Hekselman and North American saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins.

“The 2023 program of the Guimarães jazz festival is characterised, as always, by the balance between tradition and innovation and by the stylistic, geographic and generational diversity of the proposals and the musicians who participate in them. The observation of this evidence does not, however, prevent the recognition that in this edition particular attention is paid to the current New York jazz scene and to expressions of experimental tendency”, indicated A Oficina, which organizes it, in a statement.

Double bassist Buster Williams will perform with the band Something More, with the presence of Aaron Parks, the Landline Plus One ensemble, Elliot Sharp, Barry Guy, the New Digs septet, and Michael Formanek, among other artists.

“Guimarães Jazz faces a scenario undergoing a profound transformation, a transformation that now appears not only technological or aesthetic but a true change in the pure functioning of the system. Thus, the lineup for the 32nd edition may eventually be considered more circumspect and intellectually demanding in terms of its proposals, but, as has always happened throughout the history of this festival, it continues to privilege the primacy of diversity and independent choice”, said the director of Guimarães Jazz, Ivo Martins, quoted in the same text, published in July.

The concerts all take place at the Vila Flor Cultural Center, with the exception of the presentation of the project between Porta-Jazz and the festival, at the Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães, on 12 November.