HOT CLUBE

In 1945, some jazz or HOT music enthusiasts were already meeting in brothers Sangareau’s house. Luiz Villas-Boas, Ivo and Augusto Mayer brothers, Gérard de Castelo Lopes and Helena Villas-Boas gathered to exchange records, to listen the news and play. The group expanded and organized, in a more or less informal way, through jazz sessions with Portuguese musicians and foreigners who, while passing through Lisbon, were invited to join.

With the ground set up to found a Jazz club (since a radio program had been gathering potential members since 1948), this group, led by Luiz Villas-Boas, went a step forward: its formalization. On the March 16th 1950, the Statutes of Hot Clube de Portugal were approved with the slogan “Disclosure of Jazz Music”.

From this date on, Modern Music Festivals were organized, as well as concerts featuring famous musicians like Sidney Bechet or Countie Basie and many Jam Sessions. The definitive establishment in Praça da Alegria took place in the early 1950s.The 2009 fire, which destroyed the basement of No. 39, forced the Hot Clube relocation to some doors below, to the No. 48.

Hot Clube de Portugal is one of the oldest jazz clubs of Europe and it is, for sure, the one who keeps working continuously for so long. DownBeat magazine, a reputed American jazz magazine, considers Hot Clube de Portugal one of the 100 best jazz clubs in the world. The English newspaper The Guardian places Hot Clube in Europe´s 10 best jazz clubs.

The importance of Hot Clube in Portuguese society was officially recognized first in 1995, by the granting of the declaration of Public Utility and, more recently, when it received the Almada Negreiros Prize in 2001 and the Cultural Merit Medal in 2004, both awarded by the Ministry of Culture. It also received the Medal of Honor of the City in 2005, awarded by Lisbon City hall.