Hot Clube de Portugal closes the doors by order of the City Council

The Hot Clube de Portugal (HCP), in Lisbon, will close its doors from Wednesday, by order of the City Council, justified by the “structural issues” of the building, where it is located.

Speaking to the Lusa Agency, the head of the HCP, Inês Homem Cunha, said that she knew very little about the issue, and that a meeting with the Chamber was scheduled for next Friday.

“The Lisbon Chamber inspected the Hot Clube, here a few weeks ago, then came back a week ago, and now they have informed us that the building has structural damage, is in danger and therefore cannot function,” Inês Homem Cunha told Lusa Agency.

“Today we received an order to close and we complied immediately,” he added, without expecting a reopening.

The HCP is located in Praça da Alegria, in a building now occupied only by the foundation created in 1950.

In its more than seventy years of history, Hot Clube de Portugal had its most difficult moment in 2009, when the basement in which it had been operating 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, Hot Clube de Portugal resumed business two doors down from the old basement, in a more modern, but still small, space. This was where the Lisbon City Council has now ordered its closure.

For today, Hot Clube planned to perform a concert on jazz guitarist Gualdino Barros. The concert featured performances by Ruy Caetano, piano, Afonso Paes, guitar, Romeo Tristão, double bass, and Pedro Felgar, drums, and proceeds went to the historic Portuguese musician, who has even performed with North American pianist and composer. Simon, in the sixties, in Paris.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday programming at Hot Clube de Portugal featured the trio of Galician pianist Abe Rabadie, guitarist Pablo Martín Caminero, and drummer Bruno Pedroso.

Hot Clube de Portugal, Europe’s oldest active jazz club, was officially founded on March 19, 1948, when music lover and founder Luis Villas-Boas filled out membership form number one – a form that remains in the foundation’s origins.

Besides the club and the Luiz Villas-Boas Jazz School, part of Hot’s work also includes a museum centre, based primarily on the estate left by the founder, who died in 1999.

In March 2020, Hot was closed due to the covid-19 pandemic, having maintained, however, during confinement periods, activities such as online concerts and International Jazz Day and Anniversary celebrations.

Hot Clube has own record label since 2014.