César Cardoso

Born in 1982, César Cardoso in Leiria, soon dedicated his time to studying music, with only 7 years old. From 2004 to 2008 he studied at Hot Clube de Portugal’s Jazz School, where he had lessons with Jorge Reis and Pedro Moreira and started to distinguish himself as a jazz musician.

In 2008 he enrolled at Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, where he continued to work with Jorge Reis e Pedro Moreira, having completed the Jazz Bachelor Degree in saxophone performance.

César is a member of the dixieland group Desbundixie, with whom he recorded Kick’n
Blow (in 2007) and Up 2 Nine (in 2009), this last one with Maria João in vocals and Filipe Melo at the piano as special guests.

He is the mentor and artistic director of Orquestra Jazz de Leiria, a big band which
gathers Leiria's jazz community and has given a set of concerts with Portuguese artists as special guests, such as Vânia Fernandes, David Fonseca, Maria João, Herman José, Luísa Sobral, Áurea, Tiago Bettencourt, Pedro Abrunhosa, Ana Bacalhau, Camané, Sara Tavares, António Zambujo, Jorge Palma and Simone de Oliveira.

In 2010, César recorded his first debut album, Half Step, with musicians Bruno Santos, Filipe Melo, Demian Cabaud and Bruno Pedroso, his quintet at that time. The album also features Pedro Moreira as special guest and was presented at Marinha Grande’s Jazz Festival.

His second album, Bottom Shelf, was released in 2015, in Hot Clube de Portugal, and also features original music by César, specifically written for the members of his quartet – Bruno Santos, Demian Cabaud and André Sousa Machado, some of the best Portuguese jazz musicians.

He also played with many other great jazz musicians, such as João Moreira, Jorge Reis, Claus Nymark, Alexandre Frazão, Bernardo Moreira, Lars Arens, Afonso Pais, Nelson Cascais, João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Julian Arguëlles, Maria João, Mário Laginha, Bernardo Sassetti, Zé Eduardo, Perico Sambeat, Rosario Giuliani, Stacey Kent, Benny Golson, John Ellis, Miguel Zenón, Joe Lovano, John Hollenbeck, Guillermo Klein and others.

In 2016 César published the book Teoria do Jazz (Jazz Theory), with Chiado
Editora, the first book ever written in Portuguese about the theoretical bases of Jazz,
thought through to serve as a handbook for Jazz students.

His passion for composing for Big Bands has led him to write as much as 120 arrangements, originally composed for Orquestra Jazz de Leiria (including themes of the guest artists) or for Orquestra do Hot Clube de Portugal, who has recently released the album Dança dos Pássaros, featuring music of António Pinho Vargas, 3 of which arranged by César.

In 2018 César recorded his third album Interchange, with the musicians Bruno Santos,
Demian Cabaud, André Sousa Machado and a special guest, Miguel Zenón on alto saxophone. That same year he published the second book, Teoria do Jazz – Exercícios that is a complement of the first one, with many exercises for with topic.

In 2020 release his fourth album Dice of Tenors, a large ensemble with the musicians –
Jason Palmer, Miguel Zenón, Massimo Morganti, Jeffery Davis, Óscar Graça, Demian Cabaud and Marcos Cavaleiro.

César is currently teaching saxophone, theory, combo and Big Band at Hot Clube de Portugal’s Jazz School and Jazz Degree at Universidade de Évora.