Formed in 2006 by jazz pianist and composer Marco Barroso, the ensemble involves jazz and classical music virtuosos sharing similar musical inclinations and the desire to tread new creative pathways.
The ensemble of 15 musicians breaks free from the canons and conventional patterns of the traditional big band. Using a vocabulary of jazz, rock, funk, academic music and other genres, L.U.M.E’s experimental music opens up new aesthetic horizons as if asking “What if?”

Critics describe L.U.M.E as a uniquely functioning sound organism that dynamically manoeuvres between composition and improvisation, and is capable of combining cacophony and lyrical ballad-like elements.

During 15 years of its existence, L.U.M.E has appeared in many festivals and concerts, and toured in Spain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Slovenia. The ensemble’s performance at the prestigious Moers Festival in Germany in 2016 was recognized as one of the best. London Jazz News praised it as one of the most imposing and dynamic ensembles of this genre on today’s jazz scene.

L.U.M.E has gained great acclaim at the 2018 European Jazz Network Conference, and in 2019 delivered a striking appearance at the jazz fair jazzahead! in Bremen.

The Portuguese have produced three original albums. The first, L.U.M.E, released in 2010, was later reissued by the Dutch label “Challenge”. For its second album, Xabregas 10, released in 2016, the group earned the highest ratings of All About Jazz, Free Jazz Blog, NPR, jazz.pt, and several nominations of the Band of the Year, and was considered worldwide as one of the most original groups.

This autumn, the group’s discography was boosted by the third album, Las Californias, presentation of which is the gist of this European tour. Its music is described as “a utopian landscape of memories of lost dreams.”
Vilnius Jazz is the second of seven stops in Las Californias presentation tour. After performing in Lithuania, L.U.M.E will proceed to Portugal and Macedonia, and will complete the tour at the London Jazz Festival exactly a month later.