Hot Clube de Portugal closes doors by city council order
THE Hot Clube de Portugal (HCP), in Lisbon, locks doors from this Wednesday, by city council order, justified by “issues” of the building, where it is located.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, the president of the HCP, Inês Homem Cunha, said that she knew “still very little” about the issue, and that a meeting with the chamber is scheduled for next Friday.
“AN Lisbon City Hall She protected the Hot Clube, here a few weeks ago, then returned a week ago, and now she has informed us that the building has been damaged, that it is in danger and therefore cannot function”, said Inês Homem Cunha to the Lusa agency.” we received today [quarta-feira] order to close and we obeyed immediately”, he added, with no reopening forecast.
The HCP is located in Praça da Alegria, in a building that is now only occupied by the institution created in 1950.
In more than seven years of history, Hot Clube de Portugal will have experienced the most difficult moment in 2009, when a cave where it operated for decades, in a building in Praça de Alegria, was destroyed in a fire, leaving only the facade of that building.
Two years later, in 2011, the Hot Clube de Portugal resumed its activity two doors down next to the old cave, in a more modern space, but still small. It was to this place that the Lisbon City Council now gave the closure order.
Club had scheduled
For this Wednesday, Hot Clube has planned a tribute concert to jazz drummer Gualdino Barros. The concert featured performances by Rui Caetano, piano, Afonso Pais, guitar, Romeu Tristão, double bass, and Pedro Felgar, drums, and the proceeds reverted to the historic Portuguese musician, who even played with the North American pianist and composer. American Nina Simone, in the 1960s, in Paris.
The programming for Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Hot Clube de Portugal featured the trio of Galician pianist Abe Rábade, bassist Pablo Martín Caminero and drummer Bruno Pedroso.
Hot Clube de Portugal, the oldest active European jazz club, was officially founded on March 19, 1948, when Luiz Villas-Boas, a music lover and its founder, filled out membership form number one – a form that remains in the institution’s assets.
Along with the club and the Luiz Villas-Boas Jazz School, part of Hot’s work also involves the museum centre, based mainly on the estate left by the founder, who died in 1999.
In March 2020, Hot closed due to the covid-19 pandemic, having maintained, however, during periods of confinement, activities such as online concerts, celebrations of International Jazz Day and its own anniversary.
Hot Clube has its own record label since 2014.