Home » Jazz Musicians » João Gato

João Gato

Born in 2000, João Gato started taking Jazz saxophone seriously whilst studying with the altoist Ricardo Toscano, at the Hotclub of Portugal. At age 18, he finished the practical course, after taking 3 years of classes with Toscano.

In 2018, he started his Bachelor Degree in Jazz saxophone in at ESML, where he studied with prestigious portuguese musicians such as Gonçalo Marques, Desidério Lázaro, Pedro Moreira, Afonso Pais and Nelson Cascais. He finished his degree in 2021.

Since August 2023 he has been undertaking the NOCOM (Nordic Master: Composing Musician), a joint master in the RMC (Coppenhagen), NMH (Oslo) and HSM (Gottemburg), where he has studied with Lotte Anker, Peter Bruun, Kasper Tranberg and Torben Snekkestad.

In late 2021 he co-founded Apophenia, a two sax, drum and bass quartet with the objective of finding a common ground between free improvisation and the Jazz compositions through incidental composition, with an aesthetic influenced by musicians such as Eric Dolphy, Peter Evans and Ornette Coleman.

Apophenia's debut album Protzeler came out on the 21st of July of 2022, on the portuguese label Robalo, and was released at their festival and broadcasted by Antena 2.

Apophenia became a sextet in 2024, adding Duarte Ventura on vibes and Adele Viret on cello to the quartet of Gato, Tinoco, Zé Almeida and Samuel Dias.

In 2024, João Gato and Bruno Parinha released "Two" on Phonogram Unit, a 2 alto sax free improv album.

In 2024, João Gato and Duarte Ventura released "Trafiklys" on Timbuktu Records, a duo of alto sax and vibraphone with original compositions that aim to explore instant communication without a difference in layers, abolishing the soloist and comper role in a fast paced dialogue.

João is also part of young singer Filipa Franco's quintet, the electronic techno-house/ improv duo S.E Pony with artist Moss Kissing, the quartet Talagbusao (with Margaux Oswald, João Carreiro and João Valinho) and Francisco Nogueira's quintet.

Gato also works in relation to dance and movement with the collective TETO (research group into techniques for improvisation in music and dance) and the group Sonic Voyaging.

He has played with musicians such as Peter Evans (Jardins de Verão Gulbenkian 2020), Audrey Chen, Nelson Cascais, Nazaré da Silva, João Pereira, João Almeida, João Valinho and Orquestra de Jazz do Hotclub

During the last 5 years, he has taken lesson with musicians such as Jacob Sacks, Fabrizio Cassol, Perico Sambeat, Chris Pitsiokos, Gonçalo Marques and André Fernandes. He has mantained sporadic lessons with Peter Evans and studied with Yedo Gibson for a year and a half.