Opened in 2011, the Cascais Jazz Club is a discreet little spot, almost hidden in the heart of town. But step inside, and you’ll find a vibrant cultural scene - one of the few venues in the area with regular live music. For nearly 15 years, it has hosted multiple concerts every week, filling the space with jazz, blues, and bossa nova from Thursday to Sunday. Whether it's the resident musicians or special guest artists, the club, run by Jam Session Associação Cultural, is always buzzing with talent.
With a dedicated concert room and other spaces designed for socializing, the concept is simple: it’s a place to be. “We wanted a venue that was super comfortable, pleasant to the eye, where people don’t have to squeeze past their neighbors just to move around,” singer and club manager Maria Viana tells Time Out. “And we didn’t want it to be a ‘come, drink, leave’ kind of place. We wanted somewhere people could settle in and stay until the end of the night. We wanted to be a living room away from home.”
Once Upon a Time...
Anyone stepping into Cascais Jazz Club today would have no idea of the journey that led to its creation. And perhaps the best way to tell this story is by starting with Maria Viana - the jazz singer at its heart. Before she was managing one of Cascais’ most beloved music venues, she was part of Cocktail, one of Portugal’s first girl bands, active from the late ’70s to the early ’80s.
Maria grew up in Lisbon’s Lapa district, in a family of artists. Her father, José Viana, was an actor, director, and visual artist. In her “dysfunctional” family, as she describes it, strict authoritarianism clashed with boundless creativity and cultural stimulation - typical of life before Portugal’s 1974 revolution. “I was being raised to be what was considered a ‘proper lady’ at the time, but also to be curious, cultured, and highly disciplined. It was the paradox of that era,” she reflects.
Maria’s first public performance happened at just five years old, in a singing competition in Madeira, which she won. “Apparently, I always wanted to be a singer - even during the phases when I thought I wanted to be a lawyer or a ballerina.” She sang in various choirs, but her deep voice didn’t fit the traditional mold of the time.
At 12, Maria was listening to rock legends like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple. But everything changed when her father introduced her to Ella Fitzgerald. “I loved the music immediately. Then he asked me, ‘How old do you think this singer is?’ I guessed 20, since her voice sounded so youthful. He told me she was 58. I was so shocked - I felt like this music was the fountain of youth.” That moment sparked a love affair with jazz and African American music that would shape the rest of her life.
Between the ages of 14 and 15 - a period that coincided with the revolution and Portugal’s rapid social transformation - Maria left home. “I was very young and had nowhere to go. No house, no job, no money. I took refuge where there were artists. Anywhere with live music or theatre, there was always someone who knew me or my father. So, I had a better chance of being protected in some way,” she explains. Though she went through times of real hardship - sometimes even going hungry - singing in bars and clubs became such a deep passion that it outweighed all the struggles.
She started out performing Barbra Streisand and James Taylor, but at 17, during a show at the Sheraton Lisboa, she realised she couldn’t escape jazz. That night, she met José Carlos Monteiro Costa, the jazz critic for Diário de Notícias at the time. “He told me he was shocked because he had no idea there was a jazz singer in Portugal. I asked, ‘Wait, what I’m singing is jazz?’ And he replied, ‘Don’t you know you’re a jazz singer?’ That’s how a long friendship started - and that’s how I started in jazz.”
Around the same time, after a performance at the legendary Botequim, Maria joined Cocktail. But success didn’t come overnight, nor did it immediately change her precarious reality.
A love called Manuel Franco
Maria was 38 when she met the man who would be her husband until the very end: Manuel Franco. Unlike Maria, Manuel came from a poor, working-class family. He grew up in a wooden house with no gas or electricity. Though they only truly got to know each other later in life, their paths had crossed before. “As a teenager, he used to climb over the walls of my school to steal fruit,” Maria recalls with a smile.
Like something out of a film, their love story was full of coincidences and chance encounters. They met at the restaurant Velha Goa during a friend’s birthday party - a party that had been postponed by two days just so Maria could attend. Manuel, on the other hand, had missed his flight to Paris, where he was supposed to reunite with a French woman he was chasing after. “From the very first meeting, he told me he didn’t own a Ferrari, that he was a blue-collar worker, not rich. But he was a true gentleman. And he ate blood sausage with garlic - just to put me at ease, to make sure I knew that when he took me home, he wouldn’t try to kiss me.”
Manuel worked for the Portuguese postal service (CTT) and, for the first two years of their relationship, he stuck to the same romantic routine every single day at lunchtime. “He would take public transport and had exactly nine minutes to woo me. And that’s what he did. It really was a fairytale,” Maria remembers, visibly moved.
The club she never wanted - but became a place of dreams
After reconnecting with Manuel’s childhood friend, Afonso Viola - now a successful businessman - the pieces fell into place for the creation of the Cascais Jazz Club. “They had both grown up poor. Poor to the point of scraping together coins to buy a single beer to share. But Manuel never wanted to be rich, never wanted to be anyone’s boss. Afonso, on the other hand, was ambitious - he had big plans to make money, and he did. Years later, when they met again, Afonso said, ‘Remember our dream of starting a business together? Well, now I’m rich - I can fund you a restaurant.’ And Manuel replied, ‘I don’t want a restaurant. I want a jazz club.’ He was thinking of me. As if I had ever wanted a jazz club. But because I loved him so much, I kept quiet - a rare thing for me - and agreed.”
They found the space in Cascais that would become their jazz sanctuary. According to locals, the property had originally been two stone houses with a well. “The stream used to run through here, and people got around by boat.” Later, it became an appliance store. They rented the space and commissioned an architect to redesign it from scratch. “The project was approved by the council - it was going to be completely demolished and rebuilt. But it was too expensive.” That’s when a close friend offered a different idea: turn it into a non-profit cultural association.
And so they did. They gathered friends, rolled up their sleeves, and built what is now the Cascais Jazz Club - a deeply community-driven project, run mostly by volunteers, with only one salaried employee.
“I only had two conditions: there had to be proper ventilation, and there had to be a grand piano. Everything else, I didn’t care about.” And so, the dream became a reality - one that still lives on every single day. Now 66, Maria Viana remains at the helm of the club she never asked for, but which has become her life’s work. With a clear mission - “to bring the best music possible and get the public used to paying for culture” - she has retired from singing but remains devoted to the club. Her only regret? That the future of the Cascais Jazz Club remains uncertain. “If I grow old and can’t keep this place going, the question is: how will it survive without me? This is my life’s work. Until then, I live as if I were eternal.”
Largo Cidade de Vitória, 36, Cascais. Thu-Sun 20.00-01.00. 962 773 470